THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after the High Court declined to stop them from being arrested, seven employees of Mangalam Television channel, accused in the AK Saseendran sleaze tape row, appeared before the Crime Branch office here on Tuesday morning. The eighth accused turned up later before the investigation team.
On Monday, the probe team had collected evidence from the channel's office and confiscated the computers used for the sting operation against former transport minister minister AK Saseendran. The probe team had reportedly directed the officials to appear before the police on Tuesday, and issued a deadline for the same.
The channel’s chief executive officer (CEO) R Ajithkumar, on Monday night filed a theft complaint at the city's Museum police station, alleging that his laptop and mobile phone were stolen from his vehicle.
The police will check whether the incident is in anyway connected with the phone tapping row.
An FIR had been lodged last week against nine Mangalam TV officials for airing an audio purportedly of Transport Minister AK Saseendran, where he was heard having a lewd conversation with a woman over the phone.
Mangalam TV had aired the audio on March 26 and caused a furore, hours after which AK Saseendran announced his resignation from the cabinet.
When it surfaced that the TV channel was doing an unprofessional and unethical act, the government had appointed a special team to probe the case.
When the word spread that the Pinarayi Vijayan government is acting tough, Mangalam TV CEO and senior journalist R Ajithkumar went live on March 30, and extended an unconditional apology by retracting from their earlier stand.
He also admitted that it was a sting operation and not a real incident as claimed earlier, adding that their lady staffer had spoken to Saseendran, and not a housewife who had come to meet the minister, as claimed by the channel. Some of the charges against the accused are non-bailable.