CBI court sets aside order allowing Bhupesh Baghel's discharge in 'sex CD' case

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• Special CBI court reverses discharge of ex-CM Baghel in 2017 sleaze video case
• Baghel and others must face trial unless higher court grants relief
• Appeals by other accused against framing of charges were also rejected

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A special CBI court on Saturday reversed a magisterial court order that had discharged former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel from a case regarding the alleged circulation of a sleaze video purportedly depicting former minister Rajesh Munat in 2017.

The CBI had named several accused, including Baghel, in the chargesheet.

The reversal by the special CBI court implies that Baghel will have to face trial in the case unless he gets relief from a higher court.

"In the same proceedings, the court also rejected the appeal filed by the other accused, Kailash Murarka, Vinod Verma and Vijay Bhatia, against the trial court order on framing of charges," an official in the know told PTI.

The Chhattisgarh Police registered two separate FIRs in 2017 on the basis of separate complaints filed by the then state PWD minister Munat and BJP leader Prakash Bajaj.

The cases were later transferred to the CBI by the then BJP government in Chhattisgarh.

The CBI later filed a chargesheet and a supplementary chargesheet in the case.

The first case was registered at the Pandri police station in Raipur on October 26, 2017 against unknown persons on the allegation that the complainant (Bajaj) received a call on his phone wherein an unidentified caller said that he possessed a pornographic video of his "aaka"(master) and threatened to distribute it in case his demand of ransom was not met," a CBI spokesperson had said.

According to the official, the other case was registered at the Civil Lines police station in Raipur on October 27, 2017, against Chhattisgarh Congress president Bhupesh Baghel and senior journalist Vinod Verma on the allegation that they had given Munat's fake pornographic video to various social media platforms to malign his character and obtain political mileage.

Verma and Baghel denied the allegations.

The matter came to light when Verma was arrested by the Chhattisgarh Police from his Ghaziabad residence in October 2017 for suspected blackmail and extortion in the case.

When Verma was being escorted by the police, he claimed that the state government was not happy with him as it suspected that he had a "sex CD of (then) Chhattisgarh PWD minister Rajesh Munat" and suggested he was being framed.

Munat had called it "fake" and an attempt at character assassination.