Will Sell Tickets And Screen Honey Trap Videos, Says Maha Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar

Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar said here on Saturday that his party has a compact disc (CD) containing alleged honey trap videos of senior Maharashtra government officials and politicians, which would be screened after selling tickets.

The matter came to light after the wife of one of the allegedly honey trapped and blackmailed officers lodged a complaint at the Mumbai Naka police station in Nashik district, submitting a video as evidence. As many as 72 senior government officials including IAS and IPS officials have been allegedly honey trapped.

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Names of these officials and some former ministers have been kept confidential by the government. Some of the ministers hail from North Maharashtra and their names have appeared in police complaints, sources said.

“We have a CD of the Nashik honey trap case. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that there is neither any honey nor any trap, but the opposition has a lot of information about it. This is such a big case. There are many big people in it. There is no need to say much about it. When we screen the CD, we will have to do so after selling each ticket for Rs 10,000 or Rs 20,000. There is such strong evidence in it that only invitees will have to be called for the screening,” Congress MLA Vijay Wadettiwar said.

However, Congress leader Nana Patole said, “Important documents of the Maharashtra state government have fallen into the hands of anti-social elements due to this honey trap racket. Maharashtra will have to bear the consequences.

“We told the government about it in the Legislative Assembly. When I showed the pen drive in the assembly, the Speaker told me to keep it with me. We cannot show it publicly because many families will be ruined because of it. But why is the Chief Minister hiding this? Why is he causing damage to Maharashtra?”

Patole alleged that Thane, Nashik and Mantralaya (Maharashtra state secretariat building near the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly building) in Mumbai have become honey trap centres, but the government hasn’t taken any note of it.

“The Chief Minister lied in the assembly due to which Dalit activist Somnath Suryavanshi’s (who died in police custody) mother made a statement. Even the tears of that mother cannot be understood by the Chief Minister of the state. This means that the speech given by the Chief Minister yesterday was a lie. I have said many times that some senior officials and ministers in Maharashtra were honey trapped. These incidents happened in Nashik, Thane, Pune and Mumbai,” Congress leader Nana Patole said.

Meanwhile sources said that the mastermind behind the alleged honey trap and blackmail racket has been identified as a former office bearer of a prominent political party in Nashik. The issue gained traction after a senior politician publicly discussed it, leading to multiple complaints being lodged.

In a related incident, a Thane-based woman has been arrested for allegedly orchestrating the honey trap racket. The woman, who was previously arrested in 2016 for a similar alleged offence, is accused of coaxing officials into private meetings, secretly videographing compromising material and allegedly demanding crores of rupees in hush money to avoid fabricated rape allegations.

Allegedly, the arrested accused posed as a distressed former policewoman, a widow, or a home guard to befriend senior government officials and police officers online and in person. Later, she allegedly used WhatsApp chats, video calls and physical meetings to foster trust before secretly recording encounters involving the officials.