HC takes up Vinod Verma plea in CD case, issues notice to CBI

HC issues notice to CBI on Vinod Verma’s plea in Chhattisgarh CD scam case

Partha.Behera@timesofindia.com

Raipur: The Chhattisgarh high court has issued a notice to the CBI in connection with the widely discussed CD scam case that dominated political headlines in Chhattisgarh during 2017 and 2018. Vinod Verma, who served as political advisor to former chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, has challenged in the HC the sessions court order framing criminal charges in the CD case linked to then minister Rajesh Munat, dated May 15, 2017. Following an initial hearing on May 15, the single bench of Justice Radhakishan Agrawal issued a notice to the CBI, said Verma’s counsel Sudeep Shrivastava.

The state police, acting on a complaint lodged by then minister Rajesh Munat, had registered an FIR against then Congress state president Bhupesh Baghel and his media advisor Vinod Verma for allegedly creating and circulating a CD containing obscene clips purportedly linked to Rajesh Munat.

A day earlier, another FIR had been registered against an unknown person on the complaint of BJP worker Prakash Bajaj. While the first FIR pertained to alleged extortion for money and property, the second FIR carried charges related to the circulation of obscene videos under the IT Act.

Following the first FIR, police conducted a raid at Verma’s residence in Ghaziabad on the night of October 26-27, 2017, and arrested him.

In protest, the following day, October 27, 2017, Baghel held a press conference and distributed the said CD among journalists.

Both FIRs were subsequently transferred to the CBI. Since the CBI failed to file a chargesheet within the stipulated period, Verma was granted bail in December 2017 after spending 63 days in custody.

In the chargesheet filed by the CBI in October 2018, apart from Verma and Baghel, Kailash Muraraka and Vijay Pandey, both associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party, as well as Bhilai-based businessman Vijay Bhatia, were also named as accused.

In its chargesheet, the CBI acknowledged that the allegations made in Prakash Bajaj’s complaint — on the basis of which the raid was conducted at Verma’s residence — could not be substantiated. However, since the same CD was later distributed in Raipur, both FIRs were clubbed together and a combined chargesheet was filed against the accused. Although no other accused in the case was arrested, Bhupesh Baghel remained in Raipur Central Jail for three days due to non-submission of a bail bond, which later became a major political issue ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections.

During the hearing in the High Court on May 15, counsels Sudeep Shrivastava and Shreya Gupta, appearing for Verma, presented the facts of the petition and argued that the chargesheet filed by the CBI itself clearly indicated that the complaint on the basis of which the raid was conducted at Verma’s residence was false — a fact allegedly acknowledged by complainant Prakash Bajaj himself.

Furthermore, an obscene CD was produced in Mumbai by Kailash Muraraka, associated with the BJP, along with his associates Vijay Pandey and Rinku Khanuja, in which the face of minister Rajesh Munat was morphed.

The entire activity took place in August 2017, and the then Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh’s OSD Arun Bisen was also aware of it, and he has acknowledged visiting Mumbai to view the CD, said the counsel.

Therefore, the charge of making a fake obscene CD of minister Rajesh Munat cannot be attributed to Verma. On the other hand, sending the CD to journalists — treating it as genuine — does not constitute the offence of distributing an obscene CD among the general public. For both these reasons, the charges framed against him are not valid and he should be fully acquitted in this matter.

The lower court in Raipur did not accept Verma’s arguments and upheld the CBI’s contention that it is not important at what level he was involved in the criminal conspiracy hatched by Muraraka, but since the links of the crime are interconnected, he has been made accused of all types of offences, the counsel added. In this case, the Magistrate Court had discharged Baghel as an accused, but the Sessions Court Raipur reversed that decision and framed charges against him as well.

During the hearing in the HC on May 15, Justice Agrawal also asked whether any similar petition had been filed by other accused, to which he was informed that this is the first such petition so far. Following the HC notice, the CBI will now file its response in the matter, and the next hearing has been scheduled for the month of July.