THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The special investigation team, probing the alleged obscene phone conversation between former Transport Minister A K Saseendran and a woman, registered an FIR against nine employees of Mangalam TV news channel, including its Chief Executive Officer R Ajithkumar on Friday. All of them were charged with non-bailable offences and the investigation team is expected to record their statements soon.
The team decided to register an FIR after Ajithkumar admitted to honey-trapping the minister using their woman journalist to break a story on the launch day of the channel last Sunday.
An apology from Ajithkumar was telecasted by the news channel on Thursday night after the government constituted a special police team to probe into the incident. In his apology, Ajithkumar said the entire episode was the fall-out of a ‘sting operation’ involving eight in-house journalists. He said they were forced to tender an apology following criticism from cultural heavyweights in the state and social media.
He claimed a woman scribe of the channel had come forward ‘voluntarily’ to honey-trap the minister.
According to the police, nine persons including women were booked under relevant sections of Information Technology (IT) Act, Section 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) and misuse of electronic media in airing obscene content.
Meanwhile, another case was registered by the same investigation team against seven employees of the channel including Ajithkumar based on a complaint lodged by a woman lawyer Sreeja Thulasi. However, police ruled out the possibility of arresting any of the accused as they wanted to collect evidence related to the complaints.
“So far, we have registered two cases based on the complaints lodged by two lawyers. We are in the process of collecting evidence in coordination with the State Hi-tech Cell. We will also record the statements of the accused soon. However, we can’t say when the accused will be arrested”, said Crime Branch DySP Shanavas, a member of the investigation team.
On Thursday, State Police Chief Loknath Behera had formed an investigation team led by Biju Mon, DySP, Hi-tech Cell. IG Dinendra Kashyap is supervising the probe. The investigation team include Kottayam SP N Ramachandran, Palakkad SP Pratheesh, Crime Branch DySp Shanavas and SI Sudhakumari.
The sexually explicit conversation aired by the channel triggered an outrage especially on social media. The criticism was mainly on the channel’s refusal to reveal the complainant’s identity. The channel had earlier claimed the minister had spoken in sexual undertones to a housewife who approached him for some help.