Porngate: TV9 cameraman, correspondent were not aware of their big story'

Raichur: TV9 district correspondent, Siddu Biradar and cameraman, Prashanth, were not aware of the explosive content of their video footage of minister Tanveer
Sait browsing through his cell at the Tipu Jayanti celebrations until their bureau in Bengaluru alerted them to it.

According to Mr Biradar they realised the “great significance” of the footage they had sent to their bureau only after it informed them about it. Before Mr Sait delivered his speech at the event, cameraman Prashanth was on the dais behind him taking some shots.

“While I was there, I saw the minister taking his cell and going through some pictures. As he kept flipping through them, I tried to move closer to take a better shot. But the minister, who probably became aware of being videographed, shut his mobile,” Mr Prashanth recounted, adding, “I did not know what the minister was watching on his cell. I was merely taking a few shots of the entire event and in the process I took this one too.”

But after he had sent the entire five or six minute video footage of the Tipu Jayanthi celebrations to the channel's Bengaluru bureau, Mr Biradar received a call from it informing him about the “explosive content” on it. “I was quite shocked when I heard the footage showed the Minister looking at sleazy pictures while sitting on the dais,” Mr Biridar told the Deccan Chronicle.

As for the complaint registered against him at the Riachur West Police station saying he had “insulted” Mr Sait, he said he was not aware of it. “What enmity do I have with him to portray him in a bad light? I’m not his political opponent.
I have only discharged my duty as a journalist,” he asserted.