A special court on Thursday granted bail to journalist Vinod Verma in a case pertaining to circulation and possession of a “sex CD” allegedly involving a BJP minister of Chhattisgarh.

Last month, Verma, former BBC journalist and Editors’ Guild of India member, had claimed he had a sex tape of BJP leader Rajesh Munat, who said it was fake and alleged that Verma had been blackmailing him. Verma was arrested on October 27 but investigators failed to file a chargesheet within the mandatory period of 60 days, a report in The Indian Express said.

Special CBI magistrate Shantanu Kumar Deshlahre granted relief to the journalist after he submitted a bond of Rs 1 lakh and a guarantee of equal amount.

“The court accepted Verma’s plea for bail which he submitted in court on Wednesday under section 167 (II) of the CrPC,” Verma’s lawyer Faisal Rizvi was quoted as saying.

After arresting Verma on the complaint of extortion registered at Pandri police station by BJP leader Prakash Bajaj, the police claimed they had recovered 500 sleaze CDs, a laptop and a pen drive from his residence, The Times of India said.

It added that while being taken to court, Verma reportedly told the media that he was being targeted as he was in possession of a video clip of a minister. Within hours of his arrest, a sex video clip had gone viral in Chhattisgarh.

Verma has denied all accusations against him and said that he has been falsely implicated.