Thiruvananthapuram, November 21 : The justice P S Antony-led judicial commission which looked into the alleged lewd phone call row involving former minister and NCP leader A K Saseendran has reportedly given a clean chit to the latter.
According to reports in the visual media, the commission report exonerates the former minister and found the news channel ‘Mangalam’ guilty of laying a ‘honey trap’ to ensnare the minister in a sleaze phone call scandal.
Saseendran had stepped down as transport minister after the news channel, on the day of its launch, aired the audio clip of his alleged sleaze talk over phone with a woman reporter of the channel.
In its two-volume report running into 405 pages, the commission reportedly clears the minister of any wrongdoing and indicts the channel for having laid a ‘phone trap’ for the minister with commercial considerations in mind.
The report recommends criminal action against ‘Mangalam’ channel CEO and chief editor Ajith Kumar.
The commission reportedly found Mr. Kumar fully responsible for the ‘phone trap’ since he was the one who had, on the day of the channel’s launch, presented the ‘scoop’ against the minister as a ‘hidden camera scandal’.
Besides violating the broadcasting rules and regulations, the news channel, by virtue of this incident, also caused loss to the state exchequer, the report says.
Media reports also suggest that the commission, besides calling for initiating criminal action against the news channel and its CEO, has also called for the government to recover from the channel the losses incurred by the state exchequer.
The report also allegedly ticks off the woman reporter, who accused the minister of indulging in a lewd talk to her over phone, for not co-operating with the commission’s probe.
The woman journalist had recently withdrawn her complaint filed before a court against the minister over the alleged sleazy phone conversation on the ground that she had settled the issue out of court with the minister.
For Mr. Saseendran, the commission report exonerating him could not have come at a more opportune time and it could pave the way for his return to the LDF cabinet.
The NCP’s berth in the cabinet is vacant with Thomas Chandy’s resignation recently over land grab charges and the NCP state leadership has stated that there is no impediment to Saseendran’s induction into the cabinet should the commission give him a clean chit.
