Officials in India have said a senior journalist was arrested by police on Friday for extorting money from a state minister with a sex video clip.
Vinod Verma, a freelance journalist, who has worked with the BBC and the Amar Ujala Hindi news group, was picked up from his house in Ghaziabad city near New Delhi.
Verma, who appeared in court, claimed he was arrested because he had a “sex tape” from a sting operation on the minister in Chhattisgarh, a central Indian state.
“We have proof of the extortion charges against Verma,” Chhattisgarh police officer Pradeep Gupta told reporters, adding 500 CDs, pen-drives and a laptop were seized from his home.
Verma has been accused of working at the behest of the rival Congress party in Chhattisgarh, a charge that the party has denied.
Verma called it a “political witch-hunt.”
“The Chhattisgarh government has arrested me because I have a sex tape of the minister. I am being framed,” Verma said.
Verma was a member of an Editors’ Guild of India team which wrote a report slamming the police crackdown on journalists in Chhattisgarh, which is affected by a left-wing Maoist insurgency.
Journalists critical of police actions to contain militants in Chhattisgarh are often seen by the authorities as supporting the rebels.
Several Indian media professionals raised questions over Verma’s arrest.
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