Chandigarh, Jan 19: In a jolt to the prosecution in the Jammu and Kashmir sex scandal case, a 25-year-old woman has retracted in a CBI special court her statement that she was exploited by five accused persons, including a former state minister.
 In her deposition before the court yesterday, she said she was never been exploited and that she had never made such allegations.
 The woman's testimony has come as a jolt to the prosecution which has charged five persons in the 2006 case, including Raman Mattoo, a former Jammu and Kashmir minister who is facing allegations of sexually exploiting girls when they approached him for jobs.
 Mattoo is charged under Section 5 of the Act (procuring, inducing person for sale for the purpose of prostitution) along with Iqbal Khandey, Principal Secretary (Planning) and former Additional Advocate General Anil Sethi.
 Former Pattan DSP Muhammad Ashraf Mir was also accused of ‘supplying’ girls.
 Sources said that the DSP was allegedly identified by the victim during the identification parade. He is facing charges under provisions of Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act.
 Muhammad Yousif Mir, former DSP (counter insurgency, Kashmir) has been accused of sourcing call girls for officials and politicians and is also facing trial under the Act.
 CBI sources said that the victim had alleged that she was sexually exploited by all these accused.
 Sabeena, the alleged kingpin of the racket, used to allegedly get between Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,500 from the accused and after retaining her commission, she used to pay the victim.
 The woman told the court the documents she signed were blank and she was not aware of the content of statements that bore her signature.
 The case will now come up for further hearing on February 15.
 On Monday, another witness, a 45-year-old constable in the Jammu and Kashmir Police had turned hostile giving a clean chit to Mattoo.
 Initially, she had alleged that Mattoo in 2004 had called her to his home and sexually assaulted her promising a job for her son.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 19 Jan 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 20 Jan 2011 00:00:00 IST