Court discharges ex-Chhattisgarh CM Baghel in 2017 sleaze CD case

A special CBI court in Raipur has discharged senior Congress leader and former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel in a 2017 alleged sex CD case purportedly featuring a former BJP minister, citing lack of evidence, his lawyer said.

Raipur special magistrate (CBI) Bhupesh Kumar Basant considered Baghel's discharge application and granted him relief on Tuesday, 4 March, noting that there wasn't sufficient evidence to prove the allegations levelled against him in the chargesheet filed in the case, senior counsel Manish Datt told PTI.

The court noted that no case was made out against the 63-year-old Congress leader, the counsel said, adding that the order copy will be made available today, 5 March.

Elated over the development, Baghel, who stepped down as CM after the Congress lost the 2023 assembly polls, took to X and posted 'satyamev jayate (truth alone triumphs)'.

A discharge application is a request to end a criminal case before the trial begins. A court may allow such a plea if it finds lack of sufficient evidence to proceed against the accused.

State Congress communication wing head Sushil Anand Shukla also hailed the CBI court's ruling. "Truth can be harassed but cannot be defeated," he said.

In October 2017, a controversy erupted following a 'sleaze video' allegedly involving then public works department minister Rajesh Munat surfaced after the arrest of senior journalist and Baghel's close aide Vinod Verma.

The same year, a case of blackmail and extortion was registered at Pandri police station in Raipur on a complaint filed by then BJP leader Prakash Bajaj, who alleged he was being harassed over the phone by an unidentified caller who told him that "he had a CD of his aaka (master)".

After an investigation, a search team was sent to Delhi and Verma was arrested from Ghaziabad on 27 October 2017. The police claimed to have recovered 500 CDs and pen drives, among other items. Verma then claimed he had a 'sex CD' of a Chhattisgarh minister.

After Verma was arrested, the sleaze video purportedly featuring Munat surfaced, triggering a political slugfest between the opposition Congress and the ruling BJP. Munat lodged a complaint against Baghel and Verma at Civil Lines police station in Raipur for allegedly tarnishing his image through the "fake CD". The Chhattisgarh government recommended a CBI probe into the matter.

On 24 September 2018, the CBI filed a chargesheet in its special court in Raipur, naming Baghel, Verma and three others as accused in the case. Among the other accused, Rinku Khanuja — a Raipur-based automobile dealer — died by suicide in June 2018 when the CBI investigation was still on.

Charges were framed against the accused under sections 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and section 67A (whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published or transmitted in the electronic form any material which contains sexually explicit act) of the Information Technology Act.

Baghel, then president of the state Congress, was arrested and sent to jail after he declined to file a bail plea. After spending three days in Raipur Central Jail, Baghel eventually filed a bail plea and was granted bail by the special CBI court on 27 September 2018.

The former CM and Congress leaders had claimed the action against him was politically motivated.

In the 2018 assembly elections, the Congress registered a landslide victory and Baghel was made chief minister. Baghel appointed his aide Verma as political advisor. During the election campaign, the BJP had targeted Baghel over the CD issue.