Alleged sexual misconduct costs Kerala minister dear

Thiruvananthapuram, Sept 4 (UNI) Kerala Public Works Minister P J Joseph became the third minister in a span of six years rpt six years to resign from the cabinet after being involved in a sexual harassment case.

The former Transport Minister Neelalohithadasan Nadar in the previous Left Democratic Front(LDF) and the Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty in the United Democratic Front governments were found guilty of sexual misbehaviour, before Mr Joseph.

Mr Joseph submitted his resignation today, a day after Insepctor General of police B Sadhya filed her report to the government on the charges against the minister that he had misbehaved with a woman co-passenger on a private airliner. After submitting his resignation, he denied the charges against him and demanded further inquiry.

Two years back, Indian Union Muslim League(IUML) General Secretary in the Congress-led UDF government had to resign from the Ministry following a public outcry demanding his resignation, after he was accused in the ''Kozhikode ice cream parlour sex scandal case''.

In the Nayanar Ministry which came to power in 1996, former Janata Dal (S) leader Mr Neelalohitadasan Nadar had to step down in a similar sexual harassment case.

Though Mr Kunhalikutty was alleged to have been involved in the scandal way back in 1996, when it broke out, he managed to get the Industries Ministry when the Congress-led UDF government came to power in 2001. But the temporary silence on the scandal was broken when one of the girls involved in the scandal made a fresh ''confession'' in an interview that she was ''exploited''by Mr Kunhalikutty and that she went back on her first statement in which the Minister was implicated partly because of pressure from powerful people largely because of promise of generous financial assistance.

The revelation folowed weeks of agitation by the CPI(M)-led opposition and other women organisations, which led to his resignation. Even after all this, he fought this year's assembly elections, in which he suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of Mr K T Jaleel, an expelled Muslim league youth leader.

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