The story of how video journalists nailed porno K'taka mins

Bangalore, Feb 9: With the porngate saga spiraling to a bigger issue; thanks to the concerted efforts by the Opposition and those with vested interests, the BJP is facing a serious dent in their image and calls for the tainted Ministers to be thrown out of the party is only getting louder.

But the men behind it all, the video journalists behind the expose who helped the world see the real face of the politicians are from popular local channels in Karnataka. Little did the BJP government in the state forsee that allowing mediapersons to cover legislature proceedings from the visitors' gallery will harm them to such an extent.

The state legislature secretariat had earlier banned video and photo coverage of the proceedings, but had given the go-ahead for the current 10-day session from the visitors' gallery on the first floor of the Vidhan Soudha.

The porngate scandal was unfurled when video journalists of two or three Kannada news channels noticed ministers Laxman Savadi and C.C. Patil glued to their mobile handsets. They then decided to zoom in to find out what they were watching. A close scrutiny of the video revealed that they were watching porn on the mobile handset of fellow minister J. Krishna Palemar. Following the scandal turning into a public storm, all three porn-hit Ministers decided to quit.

As a rule, cell phones are prohibited in the state legislature when the assembly and the council are in session. Mobile jammers are in place in the Vidhana Soudha, due to a technical snag that was conveniently ignored by the secretariat staff.

As per reports that appeared in local media channels, the porn clip is called 'Abik' and is a mobile phone movie (3GPP imported file) of four minute, 12 seconds. The remaining footage was showed on tv channels but were blurred. This particular video clip was however circulated in areas of Hubli-Dharwad in Karnataka since the last couple of months.

The mobile handset of Palemar that was used by Savadi and Patil for porn viewing also had the video clipping of the Udupi rave party. This party was held on Feb 4 on St.Mary's Island at Malpe off the state's west coast.

This video was also controversial after it showed foreign tourists indulging in indecent activities and using drugs. This party was ironically sponsored by the state government to promote tourism in the region.

OneIndia News