The former Ministers Laxman Savadi, C C Patil and J. Krishna Palemar are scheduled to appear before the Legislative Assembly Committee on Thursday to reply to the charges that they were watching pornographic clippings on the mobile phone.
The Committee had been constituted by Speaker K G Bopaiah after they were found watching sleazy videos on the mobile phone while the Legislative Assembly proceedings were underway last month.
However, Chairman of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly Committee Shrishailappa Bidarur told The Hindu that the issue of summoning more MLAs, including the ones from Opposition Congress and JD (S), was not before the Committee.
“The terms of reference of the probe confine the inquiry to the allegations against the three former Ministers. The matter relating to summoning other MLAs does not figure in the agenda of tomorrow’s (Thursday) meeting”, he said.
However, he admitted that the issue relating to expand the probe to cover more MLAs, including the ones from the Opposition, had figured during the last meeting. “But, we have to stick to the terms of reference”, he said. “We can’t call all MLAs, who were shown by the CCTV footage to be handling their mobile phones during the proceedings of the Assembly”, he said.
It may be mentioned here that the Speaker had nominated seven members to the Committee including three from the Opposition. However, Congress members H C Mahadevappa and Amaregowda Bayyapura, besides JD (S) member Dinakar Shetty had boycotted the panel on the grounds that the video clippings shot by private television channels had conclusively proved that the former Ministers were indeed watching pornography and there was no need for a probe.
The Committee now comprises only BJP members Nehru Olekar, Suresh Gowda and S R Vishwanath, besides Mr Bidarur.
