Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has said that the government will initiate legal action against the Malayalam news channel which made a telephonic conversation, using a fake identity, with Tourism Minister A P Anil Kumar as part of a sting operation on Friday.
Inaugurating the Karumalil Sukumaran Foundation here on Saturday, the Chief Minister came down heavily on the act of the television channel. “The channel was not ready to air the entire telephonic conversation it had with the Minister. It is a serious flaw on the part of the channel. It is objectively and legally wrong. The top brass of ‘Asianet News’ should respond in this regard. The government will initiate legal action in the matter,” Chandy said.
Meanwhile, former KPCC president K Muraleedharan has said that Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s decision to pursue legal action against the media was his personal stand. “Chief Minister’s decision to take action against the media is a personal one. The Congress has never taken such a stand. Since A K Antony’s regime, the Congress had been following a soft approach to media. The Congress never had a culture of voicing or taking action against media,” he added.
Call for probe
The government is learnt to have asked the Intelligence Department to initiate a probe into the activities and sources of income of Fenny Balakrishnan, the advocate of solar scandal accused Saritha S Nair. The directive comes in the wake of allegations that Fenny had conspired to avoid the names of some prominent persons from Saritha’s statement.
Meanwhile, Fenny Balakrishnan who reportedly decided to relinquish the brief on Saturday morning changed his mind by evening. Fenny, in the morning, reportedly called a media house over the phone and conveyed his decision to relinquish the brief, but in similar fashion he told another media house that he has changed his mind in the evening. However, he could not be contacted to confirm his decision, as his phone was switched off throughout the day. But when contacted, Adv Prince, who jointly holds the brief in the case at Ernakulam Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate said that he was not informed of about any such decision.
Fenny reportedly told another media house that it was on the request of Saritha’s mother that he had made up his mind to continue with the vakalat of Saritha in the case.
Written statement
The Superintendent of Women’s Jail, Attakulangara, on Saturday issued a notice to Saritha S Nair, directing her to prepare a handwritten statement to be submitted in the High Court. The Superintendent, who handed over writing materials to Saritha, directed her to complete the statement before Wednesday.