The CBI will soon take over the probe into the Chhattisgarh “sex CD” row allegedly involving a state minister, agency sources said today.

The agency, they said, has sought case documents from the state police as it has now received the notification from the Department of Personnel and Training, a prerequisite for the central probe agency before registering a criminal case.

The Chhattisgarh government had recently recommended a CBI probe into the case, where senior Journalist Vinod Verma was arrested by the state police sometime back.

The BJP-led state government had accused the opposition Congress of hatching a conspiracy.

Chhattisgarh Revenue Minister Prem Prakash Pandey had said his party has already stated that the CD was fake and even a local TV channel in its report mentioned that it has been tampered with.

The matter seems to be a “political and criminal conspiracy” and, therefore, it was decided that the premier investigation agency should probe it, Pandey had said while announcing the state government’s decision.

Pandey had said the recommendation to the CBI for the probe has been made on six points including inter-state conspiracy in making the “fake” CD, a high-level technical examination of the alleged video, funding to make it and political and criminal conspiracy.

The alleged sex video had sparked a political row in the state with the Congress and the BJP trading charges over the issue.

The matter came to light when Vinod Verma was arrested by the Chhattisgarh Police last month from his Ghaziabad residence for suspected blackmail and extortion related to a “sex CD”.

According to the Raipur Police, a case of blackmail and extortion was registered at the Civil Line police station here following a complaint by one Prakash Bajaj who said that he “was being harassed over phone by an unidentified caller who told him that he had a CD of his master”.

Raipur Superintendent of Police Sanjeev Shukla had claimed that about 500 “porn” CDs, Rs two lakh in cash, a pen drive, a laptop and a diary were seized from the journalist’s residence, who was picked up at 3.30 AM from Mahagun Mansion Apartments in Indirapuram by the Chhattisgarh police team with the help of the Ghaziabad Police.