Karnataka Porngate: Only One Minister Guilty
on Mar 19, 2012
Of the three Karnataka ministers, who were caught watching porn in the Assembly Hall, only among them has been found guilty. The other two ministers have been absolved by the House Committee formed to probe the matter. The committee found there is evidence to merit action against only one of them - Lakshman S Savadi.
It is to be recalled that on February 7, three ministers were seen watching porn on a cellphone. The incident was captured by the camera crew of a private TV channel that was covering the proceedings in the Assembly that day. The trio - Lakshman S Savadi, CC Patil and J Krishna Palemar - were forced to resign. All three said they were innocent and were watching a news report on an incident of rape. The phone, it would later turn out, belonged to Mr Palemar.
A committee comprising seven MLAs was set up to investigate the incident. The opposition MLAs refused to participate in the inquiry, because they said that the former ministers should be expelled as MLAs. So the former ministers were questioned only by four members of their own party. During the probe, it also emerged that over a dozen other MLAs may have also been viewing porn inside the Assembly. But ten of them were not in the terms of reference for the panel that submitted its report today. The committee's report has been handed over to the speaker KG Bopaiah for further action.