Bangalore:
Of the trio of former ministers accused of watching porn in the Karnataka Assembly, two have reason to exhale. A committee, set up by the Assembly, has found there is evidence to merit action against only one of them - Lakshman S Savadi.
On February 7, three ministers were seen watching porn on a cellphone. The incident was captured by the camera crew of a private TV channel that was covering the proceedings in the Assembly that day.
The trio - Lakshman S Savadi, CC Patil and J Krishna Palemar - were forced to resign. All three said they were innocent and were watching a news report on an incident of rape. The phone, it would later turn out, belonged to Mr Palemar.
A committee comprising seven MLAs was set up to investigate the incident. The opposition MLAs refused to participate in the inquiry, because they said that the former ministers should be expelled as MLAs. So the former ministers were questioned only by four members of their own party.
During the probe, it also emerged that over a dozen other MLAs may have also been viewing porn inside the Assembly. But ten of them were not in the terms of reference for the panel that submitted its report today.
The committee's report has been handed over to the speaker, KG Bopaiah.
The fact that two of the three men allegedly involved will be excused comes as huge relief to the BJP which is currently dealing with a revolt in its Karnataka branch. Former chief minister BS Yeddyurapa wants to return to office. He has 67 MLAs - more than half of the party's elected representatives - on his side.