Former Karnataka minister H Y Meti gets clean chit in sleaze video case

Meti who was the excise minister lost his cabinet berth after the CD became public.

The Karnataka CID has given former Karnataka minister and Congress leader H Y Meti a clean chit in a sleaze video case. CID in a report submitted to the Home ministry has claimed that the video was edited and doctored. The report also says that the woman purportedly shown in the video with the former minister was not a reliable witness since she had changed her stance multiple times.

In December 2016, a CD purportedly showing the 71-year-old Congress leader in a compromising position with a woman was aired on regional news channels. A government employee identified as Vijayalakshmi had accused the minister of seeking sexual favour from her days before the CD was made public. Soon after the video emergd, H Y Meti resigned from his cabinet position. Days after the video emerged, the alleged victim made a u-turn and claimed that the woman in the video was not her. Vijayalakshmi even alleged that she was threatened by a group of men to accuse Meti of sexual harassment.

Five months after the Karnataka government ordered a CID probe into the case, a clean chit has now been given to the Congress leader. The CID in its report has also highlighted that no complaints have been filed against H Y Meti in any police station with regard to the case. The CID has also claimed that the man who shot and released the video had edited the footage. The footage that was available with media channels, the report said, was a doctored one.

Vijayalakshmi who landed in a controversy over the video claimed that H Y Meti's gunman, Subhas Mugalkhod had hatched a conspiracy to tarnish the minister's image. Constant contradictory statements made by her, the CID claimed, made her an unreliable witness in the case.

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