A special CBI court on Saturday acquitted former Jammu and Kashmir minister Raman Mattoo, Congress legislator G.A. Mir and IAS officer Iqbal Khanday in the 2006 JK sex scandal case, allegedly involving host of politicians, bureaucrats and businessmen.
The court gave benefit of doubt to all the three, even as public prosecutor R.K. Handa later told reporters outside the court that the investigating agency had sought prosecution of the witnesses/victims “who have turned hostile deliberately by giving false statements”.
“In Mattoo’s case, two victims turned hostile while in Mir and Khanday’s case, one each victim turned hostile,” Mr Handa, the special CBI counsel, said.
They were acquitted und-er Section 5 of the Prev-ention of Immoral Traffi-cking Act as court gave them benefit of doubt and victim also turned hostile while recording their statements in the court, he further said. “The court has given the three people benefit of doubt and acquitted them. The victim had turned hostile at the stage of cross-examination of her statements in the court. However, earlier she had allegedly accused the three before the police and J&K court.” The scandal hit the headlines in March 2006 after an MMS was found doing rounds in Jammu and Kashmir after which different cases were registered in which 14 accused, involving politicians, senior bureaucrats and police officers were named.
In September 2006, the SC had ordered transferring of the case to the Chandigarh sessions court. The order to transfer the trial to Chandigarh came on a petition of 14 accused who contended that “no lawyer” in Srinagar was willing to defend them.