Even as 12 top serving bureaucrats and eight former Ministers of Madhya Pradesh (MP) seem to be in big trouble in the honey trap scandal, the kingpin of scandal Shweta Jain has confessed to the SIT.
Jain said she coerced at least two dozen college going girls, from lower middle class families, who were used to seduce the high and mighty of MP government.
Jain also admitted that the main objective of the honey trap was to procure lucrative government contracts, running into several hundred crores [millions], from the targeted VIPs.
Most of the contracts were awarded to reputed companies by Shweta Jain and her aide Aarti Dayal on commission basis. Besides, procuring contracts, Shweta was also managing postings of several IAS and IPS officers at top of the line assignments.
Promises of admission, schooling
During interrogation by Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Indore, Shweta said that on demand of bureaucrats she lured many college girls and finally coerced them to bed with men, mostly of their father’s age.
In one instance, SIT confronted Shweta with a college girl Monica Yadav. Monica disclosed to SIT that on pretext of seeking admission in a prestigious college she came in contact with Shweta, who claimed that she was close to top brass of the MP government.
To convince Monica, an outsider to Bhopal, Shweta took her to Secretariat in Bhopal where she was introduced to three secretary level IAS officers. Shweta also provided an Audi car to Monica to shuttle between Indore and Bhopal.
Using financial need
A senior SIT official said that Monica initially refused to oblige Shweta and returned to her parents home in Narsinghgarh. Subsequently Aarti Dayal visited Monica’s place and told her father Hiralal that if he sends her daughter to Bhopal, then her NGO would bear all costs of Monica’s education.
Later, Hiralal, whose financial condition was not good, allowed her 18-year-old daughter to leave for Bhopal with Aarti. In her statement Monica alleged that on August 30, this year, Aarti and an aide Rupa, brought her to Indore in a luxury car wherein they stayed in the posh Infinity hotel.
The next evening a government engineer Harbhajan Singh, 60, was introduced to her. Later Monica had to spend the entire night with Harbhajan who had sex with her. Monica disclosed that Aarti made a video recording of the hotel room where she slept with Harbhajan.
Later, on the basis of the video clip, Shweta demanded Rs 3 crore [30 million] from Harbhajan Singh. Monica was also threatened that if she revealed anything to her parents the obscene video would be uploaded on a website.
The first women SSP of Indore, Ruchi Vardhan Singh, a key member of the SIT, said that Shweta and Aarti eyed college girls and by persuading them to lead a modern hijinks life, they gradually pushed these young girls into the honey-trap scam.
Besides college-going girls, over 40 call girls were also hired by Shweta to cater to wide range of clients which included a former Chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.