Bhopal: The high-profile honey-trapping and blackmailing scandal that rocked Madhya Pradesh around four and half years ago is scheduled to come up for hearing in a court in Indore in the state on Monday.The hearing is scheduled to be held on the petition filed by lawyer Yavar Khan seeking to know how the pen-drive purportedly containing evidence of the honey-trapping and blackmailing scandal had fallen in the hands of former chief minister Kamal Nath.Mr Khan filed the petition after Mr Nath had at a press conference here on May 21, 2021 claimed that he had in his possession the pen-drive containing evidence of the scandal.The court had earlier sent notices to the police and Mr Nath to reply to the petition.The special investigation team (SIT) constituted by the state government to probe the matter is scheduled to present its report on the notice sent to Mr Nath in this regard.The SIT had earlier issued a notice to Mr Nath and sought the pen-drive from him.The court will hear how the pen-drive reached Mr Nath and whether it was taken from him.Mr Nath has earlier issued a clarification that he had only watched 29-second-clip relating to the scandal.In his clarification, Mr Nath said that the police produced the pen drive before him when he was chief minister. But, he had returned the pen-drive to the police after watching only 29-second-clip.The scandal came to light on September 19, 2019 when an engineer of Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) filed a complaint with a police station in Indore alleging that he was being blackmailed into exposing sex video if he did not pay Rs three crore to a woman.Later, police conducted raids at different places in Indore and Bhopal and arrested five women and driver of one of them in connection with the alleged scandal.Police had seized laptop, pen drives, CDs, and mobile phones from some of them.Later, police recovered sleaze videos and photographs allegedly featuring some bureaucrats, politicians, and businessmen from the electronic gadgets seized from them.The scandal was unearthed during the Kamal Nath government.The probe into the case has reportedly so far progressed at snail’s pace giving rise to the apprehensions in different quarters that the matter may be put under the carpet to shield the high profile people involved in it.All the six accused were now out on bail.
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