Chandigarh: Failing to prove the evidence, Central Bureau of Investigation special court Friday acquitted Kashmiri hotelier in alleged sex scandal in Jammu and Kashmir.
Riyaz Ahmad was booked by the CBI for allegedly running a brothel in his hotel at Shaheed Gunj area of Srinagar.
He was acquitted by the additional sessions judge Gagan Geet Kaur in the CBI court.
Ahmad was booked under Section 3 of the Prevention of Immoral Trafficking Act, 2004.
The defence counsel for Ahmad, according to media reportsl, Rabindra Pandit, said that he was given the benefit of the doubt as CBI could not prove evidence in the case against him.
The case created ripples in the state in 2006 and the alleged sex racket was busted after two CDs of a 15-year-old girl filmed nude were found by police.
Two top politicians, 13 police and security force officers and 43 girls, were allegedly involved in the racket, police investigations that time had found.
Ahmad was accused of running the sex scandal from his hotel.
The case was later shifted to the Chandigarh sessions court on September 4, 2006 and charges were framed on March 21, 2007.
The case involved a total of 14 accused.
The CBI special judge, Vimal Kumar had in 2012, acquitted Iqbal Khandey, the principal secretary, current MLA and former minister Ghulam Ahmed Mir and Raman Mattoo, a former Jammu and Kashmir minister, along with alleged kingpin Sabeena and her husband Abdul Hamid.
The CBI had failed to prove the allegations against them as well.