Raichur: A day after he was caught on camera, flipping through sleazy videos on his cellphone, primary and secondary education minister Tanveer Sait said he will not quit but wage a legal battle against the media for “falsely implicating” him and tarnishing his reputation.
During his interaction with the media at the end of a review meeting on preparations for the proposed Kannada Sahitya Sammelan scheduled to be held here, Mr Sait, who looked visibly perturbed, tried to put on a brave front. “I have got self respect. I am accused of committing a crime which I did not. I did not watch porn, but was updating myself on Tipu Jayanti celebrations. I will file a defamation case against the media,” he added.
Stating that officers of cyber crime branch have registered a case, the Minister hoped that “truth” will be out soon. Replying to a query, Mr Sait stated he had appraised CM Siddaramaiah and KPCC president Dr G Parameshwar about the episode over phone. “Tomorrow, after going to Bengaluru, I will meet them”, he added.
He replied in the negative when whether there was a dictate from the CM or KPCC president to resign and thus save the government and the party from embarrassment. “There is a difference between this incident and the one involving BJP ministers”, he added. Not withstanding the controversy, Mr Sait attended programmes according to schedule. Around 11 am Mr Sait chaired the Karnataka Development Programme meeting which lasted for an hour and half.
Barring Raichur MP B V Naik and the Maski MLA Pratapgowda Patil and Zilla Panchayat president A Veeralakshmi, all other elected representatives skipped the meeting. In the afternoon, the minister participated in “Jana-Mana Programme”, an interaction with beneficiaries of government schemes organized by department of information and the district administration.
Meanwhile, the district unit of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (Shivarame Gowda) has lodged a complaint against Mr Sait in Raichur (West) police station.
