Prime accused in Bengal porn racket case now slapped with forgery charges

Kolkata, July 5 (IANS) Shweta Khan, the prime accused in the porn racket case in West Bengal, has also been slapped with forgery charges by the personnel of West Bengal Police who are investigating the matter.

The main charges against her in the matter are that she first secured fake Indian identity documents like Aadhaar cards, EPIC cards, and PAN cards under different names and thereafter, also opened bank accounts in those names by using forged fake identity documents.

Three such names in which such accounts were opened by the accused have come to the knowledge of the investigating officials which are Shweta Khan, Mahsina Begum, and Fultusi.

On Saturday, she was presented at a district court in Howrah. There, the public prosecutor furnished details in the court and sought fresh custody for her to question her in connection with the matter. The court remanded her to five days of police custody.

Last month, the police arrested three persons namely Shweta Khan, her son Aryan Khan, and her minor daughter.

Since the third accused is a minor, her case has been referred for processing under the Juvenile Justice Act and referred to the Juvenile Justice Board.

The main charges against the trio are holding a woman from the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal captive for six months and brutally assaulting her with an iron rod after she refused to participate in pornographic video shoots allegedly orchestrated by the three accused.

The three accused in the case were arrested one after another on June 11 from different parts of the city by the investigating officials but only after the National Commission for Women (NCW) took suo motu cognizance of the incident and wrote to the West Bengal DGP Rajeev Kumar, demanding immediate arrests under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

BJP had already alleged that Shweta Khan had close links with several senior leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress. In fact, a picture of her along with a high-profile member of the West Bengal cabinet from Howrah district also went viral on social media last month.

--IANS

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