The Hindu : Three Punjab Ministers in call-girl racket: Gujarat Minister

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 17, 2003

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National

Three Punjab Ministers in call-girl racket: Gujarat Minister

By Manas Dasgupta

AHMEDABAD FEB. 16. The Gujarat Home Minister, Amit Shah, today announced the busting of a "massive call-girl racket" in which three Punjab Ministers and Congress MLAs were "involved".

Mr. Shah, however, added that the Ministers and MLAs had only utilised the services of call-girls and it was not clear at this stage whether any case could be made out against them. But it had raised a "moral issue" of people in high offices indulging in anti-social activities.

The Minister claimed the police had not launched an investigation into the case with the Congress leaders in mind.

Their names had been revealed by the drivers who brought the call-girls to the five-star hotel, where the leaders were lodged between December 2 and 9 last year when they came here to campaign for the Assembly elections.

Mr. Shah said the police had arrested four persons under the Prevention of Anti-Social Activities Act (PASA) and 10 call-girls hailing from different parts of the country, including Mumbai and Bangalore. Investigations showed that at least 22 city hotels, including some well-known star hotels, were involved in the racket.

<170>The police stumbled upon the racket during a recent raid on some hotels and a residential building on the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway, in which 16 persons, including six girls, were arrested for prostitution. Investigations led to further raids late on Saturday and early today in two other hotels, in which seven others, including two call-girls, were arrested.

Two girls who had "served" the Punjab Ministers and MLAs were "absconding". But investigations had revealed "direct connections" of the Punjab leaders in the racket, he said.

MLA denies

Mr. Shah provided the names of two Ministers and a Congress MLA from Punjab. However, in a telephonic conversation from Delhi, the MLA not only denied his involvement but also pointed out that he was a member of the Delhi Assembly.

He also denied any acquaintance with the Punjab Ministers.

The MLA said he had spent two days in Hotel Taj Ummed Residency along with three other Congress MLAs and councillors from Delhi during the period mentioned by Mr. Shah but had later shifted to another hotel where other leaders were staying.

He had no knowledge of the whereabouts of the Punjab Ministers.

He also threatened to lodge a defamation suit against Mr. Shah for defaming him.

Mr. Shah said one Niraj Shah, believed to be the kingpin of the racket, had been arrested. A case was pending in the Unjha police station in Mehsana district against Mr. Niraj Shah for cheating.

In a statement, the Gujarat Congress spokesman, Hasmukh Patel, accused Mr. Amit Shah of trying to defame the party on the eve of elections to the Himachal Pradesh and other State Assemblies.

BJP denial

PTI reports from Chandigarh:

The BJP rejected suggestions that naming of two Punjab Ministers in the sex scandal was timed shortly before the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and hinted that names of more Congress leaders could come up for their ``alleged misdeeds''. Talking to reporters, the BJP general secretary, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, hinted that names of more Congress leaders, particularly those from Punjab, could surface for their alleged acts of misdeeds.

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