A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Saturday set asiade a magistrate's order discharging former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel in the 2017 obscene video case.
Now Baghel has to face trial in the case though he can appeal in a higher court. The case pertains to the alleged circulation of an obscene video purportedly involving former Chhattigarh PWD minister Rajesh Munat.
CBI has named Baghel as one of the accused in its chargesheet. The special court also dismissed the appeals submitted by the other accused, including Kailash Murarka, Vinod Verma and Vijay Bhatia.
In 2017, the Chhattisgarh police filed two separate FIRs on the basis of complaints filed by the then minister Munat and BJP leader Prakash Bajaj.
The first case was registered at the Pandri police station in Raipur on October 26, 2017 against unknown persons after Bajaj alleged that he got a call from an unidentified caller who claimed of possessing a pornographic video of his "aaka"(master) and threatened to distribute it in case his demand of ransom was not met.
The second case was registered after BBC and Amar Ujala journalist Vinod Verma was arrested in October 2017 with 500 copies of the CD containing the obscene video. Verma was charged with extortion after he was accused of doctoring the video to defame Munat.
During this time, Verma was working as a consultant for Bhupesh Baghel, according to reports. However, Verma claimed that he was being framed by the then BJP government. He alleged that the state government was not happy with him as it suspected that he had a "sex CD of Chhattisgarh PWD Minister Rajesh Munat".