Newly elected Congress chief minister in Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel has reportedly hired former scribe Vinod Verma as his political advisor. Verma, who is a member of Editor’s Guild of India, was arrested last year from Ghaziabad by Raipur Police after a case of blackmail and extortion was registered against him by BJP leader Prakash Bajaj.
As per reports, Bajaj had alleged that he was being harassed over phone by an unknown caller who told him he had a CD of his ‘aaka’. The explicit CD reportedly featured PWD minister Rajesh Munat.
The police had claimed to have recovered as many as 500 CDs and pen drives from Verma’s residence during a raid. He was released on bail last year in December after the police failed to file a charge sheet against him in 60 days.
In September this year, the CBI, which had taken over the investigation, filed a charge sheet naming Verma and Baghel and other three as accused in the case. One more accused, Rinku Khanuja, allegedly committed suicide in June this year.
As per the charge sheet, the accused were booked under sections 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and section 67A of the IT Act (whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted in the electronic form any material which contains sexually explicit act).