“Mere paas Chhattisgarh ke ek mantri ki sex CD hai (I have the sex CD of a Chhattisgarh minister),” shouted Vinod Verma, journalist and an executive member of the Editor’s Guild of India, while being taken to the Ghaziabad court for transit remand on Friday.

“He (the minister) is Rajesh Munat and that is why the Chhattisgarh government is not happy with me,” he said as he was shepherded away by police. Verma claims that he is being “framed” because he is in possession of an alleged sex tape involving Munat.

The Indian Express reported that though Verma was a journalist with the BBC, he had been working as a consultant with Chhattisgarh Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel, who has condemned the arrest.

Verma was picked up by the Special Operations Group of Chhattisgarh Police from his Ghaziabad home at around 3:30 am on Friday.

Munat, who holds the PWD portfolio in the BJP-led government on Chhattisgarh, sought an investigation into the alleged “sex CD” and called it a “fake”.

“They’ve been questioning him since morning.” said Amit Yadav, a lawyer who was present at the interrogation in the morning. Yadav told Newslaundry the police was cordial initially, but it took them no time to turn hostile. “The police spoke to someone on the phone and suddenly turned hostile,” Yadav said. He added Verma was questioned in the presence of two of his lawyers. “Shuru me toh kaafi achhe se pesh aa rahe the par baad me badtameezi se baat karne lage aur hame waha se nikal diya (Initially, they were nice to us but later they started talking rudely and asked us [Lawyers] to leave).”

He said that during the interrogation, the police was consistently talking about an “apattijanak (problematic) CD”. The complaint against Verma was filed by BJP state working committee member Prakash Bajaj at Pandri police station in Raipur. The police filed an FIR against Verma on October 26, and within hours, the Chhattisgarh Police came knocking at the door at Verma’s house in Ghaziabad. According to the police statement, they recovered a box of 500 CDs, a pen drive and some cash. Moreover, the police also confiscated his laptop and a diary. However, later in a conversation with journalists, Verma said all he has is a pen drive and no CDs. He denied having any connection with the 500 CDs allegedly recovered from his house.

According to a Raipur Police press release, Verma has been charged under Sections 340, 384 and 507 of the Indian Penal Code for extortion and blackmail. While these are bailable offences, the court has denied him bail and given transit remand. “The transit remand is for three days, October 27-30. He (Verma) will be produced in court on 30th,” Naseeb Ahmed Khan, Verma’s lawyer told Newslaundry.

As per the press note, Bajaj accused Verma of threatening him. “Tumhare aaka ki ashleel video hamare pass hai (I am in possession of your boss’s obscene video),” the press note states. The complainant stated that Verma tried to extort money by threatening to leak the video if he did not pay up.

Verma’s arrest created ripples on social media as it became one of the top trends on Twitter this morning. His son, Punarvasu, was also present at the police station. Besides him, several journalists came to the police station in solidarity and expressed their deep concern at Verma’s arrest.

“I have known him (Verma) for 20 years. This case is completely false,” said Anil Dubey, a journalist and a member of press association. “If you write against the government, you will be bought, fired or managed like this,” Dubey told Newslaundry.

There were others who pointed at the holes in the police theory. A former journalist and Verma’s friend of 15 years, Parthiv said the way in which Verma was picked up and the reason for it were absurd. “Whatsapp, Facebook ke zamane me koi CD kyu baantega? (Why will one distribute CDs in the era of WhatsApp and Facebook)” said Parthiv, who is an executive member of human rights group Jan Hastakshep. “They did not even let Verma use the toilet. Aise treat kar rahe hai jaise koi bohot bada criminal ho (They are treating him like a criminal),” he added.

“The FIR was lodged on October 26, the police showed up at his house at 3:30am and they say they caught a box of 500 CDs. When did they even watch the contents of all the CDs to claim it is apattijanak?” Parthiv said.

“Yeh toh media ko gag karne ki poori koshish hai (this is an attempt to gag the media),” a line that could echoed from everyone at the police station to social media.