The Madhya Pradesh High Court has rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) against Congress leaders Kamal Nath and Govind Singh in relation to the purported CD of the honeytrap scandal.
The petition alleged that on the strength of the purported statements made by both the Congress leaders (Nath and Singh) that they have the said CD of the honeytrap scandal, they should be ordered to submit the CD to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the police for the sake of just investigation in the case.
During the tenure of Kamal Nath as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh between December 2018 and March 2020, Govind Singh was a minister in his government.
This petition was filed by Indore lawyer Bhupendra Singh Kushwaha against them in 2023.
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A division bench of Justices Vivek Rusia and Binod Kumar Dwivedi rejected the petition on July 10 after hearing the case facts.
The bench stated, "In this case, a chargesheet has been filed long ago and trial is going on. As far as the statement of these two political individuals is concerned, the petitioner was informed about the statement through the news which was brought out in the newspaper. Petitioner has no personal knowledge that the CD is with them." "It is a well-established law that the court cannot take cognizance of news brought out in the newspaper without their being any substantive evidence. Petitioner has also not submitted any affidavit that the CD is with them. Thus, this court cannot take cognizance in the case," it added.
Five women members of the honeytrap gang and their driver were arrested from Bhopal and Indore in September 2019, officials said.
In the chargesheet filed before the court on December 16, 2019, the police stated this organised gang employed young women, who were brought to Bhopal by human trafficking, to entrap wealthy individuals and high-ranking officials.
After that, videos of their private moments caught through hidden cameras, screenshots of social media conversations and objectionable content used to be gathered. Based on this, they used to blackmail them and demand money from them.
The SIT was constituted to investigate this case in detail which hogged the headlines in the political world of the state.
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