SRINAGAR, 21 June 2006 — Two former state ministers in Kashmir were arrested yesterday in connection with a prostitution scandal that has sparked weeks of protests in the region, police said.
G.A. Mir and Raman Matoo were held by officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing claims Kashmiri girls — including some minors — were provided as prostitutes to politicians, police and government officials.
Mir is a member of Kashmir’s ruling Congress party and was junior tourism minister until November 2005, while Matoo is an independent and worked at the Industries Ministry. Both are still lawmakers in the state assembly.
“We believe Mir is not involved, it is a deep conspiracy. Let the law take its own course,” Abdul Majid Padroo, a spokesman for Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Congress party said.
An angry mob ransacked the house of a woman suspected of running the sex ring in Srinagar, the state’s summer capital, soon after it broke in April.
The woman and three others were detained by police for questioning after pornographic videos and video clips on mobile phones showing nude Kashmiri girls were circulated in Kashmir.
Nearly a dozen people, including a senior security official and several women, have been arrested so far in connection with the scandal, and more arrests are likely, the CBI official said.
