GANDHINAGAR: In the eye of a storm for allegedly watching porn inside the Gujarat assembly, BJP MLA Shankar Chaudhary today demanded that the mobile phone used to capture the act also be impounded and sent for forensic examination.
Chaudhary, MLA from Radhnapur, said this while making a statement during the discussion on the budgetary demands of the departments of Social Justice and Empowerment and Sports, Youth and Cultural activities.
"Like I gave away my iPad for scrutiny on moral grounds, the mobile phone on which the video recording (of the two MLAs watching something on iPad) was done should also be impounded and sent for scrutiny," Chaudhary said.
Pleading innocence, he said, "Satya ko aap pareshan kar sakte ho, satya ko hara nahi sakte (Truth can be harassed but not defeated)."
Chaudhary along with BJP MLA from Sehra Jetha Bharwad are facing a probe by the Privileges Committee of the assembly for allegedly watching obscene pictures on an iPad during the proceedings after a journalist from a vernacular newspaper complained about the incident to the speaker on March 20.
The Speaker had then ordered seizure of the iPad belonging to Chaudhary and sent it to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination.
Though the FSL later gave a clean chit to the two MLAs in its report submitted to the Speaker, the storm has refused to ebb away with the Congress disrupting the proceedings.
Congress MLAs were suspended for obstructing the proceedings for the fourth working day today.
Before Chaudhary made his statement, Minister for Legislative Affairs Dilip Sanghani raised a point of order on the mock assembly conducted by the suspended Congress MLAs last Friday outside the house.
Deploring the way the Congress MLAs had disrupted the House during the last four days, Sanghani said after they were suspended on Friday they not only held a mock assembly against the rules but also portrayed the Speaker in bad light.
He said one of the MLAs was seen sporting a mask with the picture of the Speaker and had spoken in terms he could not repeat in the House. He demanded strict action against the opposition MLAs.
Speaker Ganpat Vasava reserved his ruling on the issue which he described as "serious".
"How justified it is to hold a mock assembly outside when the House is in session?" Vasava said, adding there could be differences of opinion but the actions of members of the assembly should not harm or mock the democratic traditions it follows.