THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In what could be termed as a relief for former transport minister and NCP leader A K Saseendran, the woman who filed a sexual harassment complaint against him changed her statement again, this time favouring Saseendran, at the Chief Judicial Magistrate court here on Wednesday. The court will pronounce its verdict on Saturday.The woman reportedly deposed before the court that Saseendran did not harass her via phone or in person. She added that he did not misbehave with her by inviting her to his official residence. Earlier, the woman, who was part of a TV news channel, had claimed that Saseendran had made lewd comments to her over phone.
Two months ago, the P S Antony judicial commission, which probed the case, gave a clean chit to Saseendran, saying the TV news channel had trapped the minister “with commercial interests” in mind.
Last year, the then newly launched channel had released audio clips in which Saseendran could be heard purportedly talking to a woman in explicitly sexual tones. Subsequently, it came to light that the woman in question was a reporter of the TV channel, assigned to ‘trap’ the minister, who was forced to step down after the expose.