Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that there is no hurdle to former Transport Minister A.K. Saseendran’s return to the Cabinet.
“Appropriate decision has to be taken by the parties concerned. I also wish to give up the additional portfolios that I hold now at the earliest,” the Chief Minister said while replying to questions from reporters on Mr. Saseendran’s return to the Cabinet here on Wednesday.
Mr. Saseendran had put in his papers within hours of the Mangalam TV channel airing on March 26 an audio clip purportedly suggesting that he had engaged in a lewd telephonic conversation.
Although his lone fellow Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) colleague Thomas Chandy had assumed charge as the Transport Minister following this, he was forced to quit last week over alleged violation of land laws by a resort owned by him in Alappuzha.
The Chief Minister said the Cabinet had approved the report of the P.S. Antony Judicial Commission that had inquired the allegation against Mr. Saseendran.
On whether Mr. Saseendran had been exonerated by the commission that probed the sexual harassment against him, Mr. Vijayan said that, going by the report, the commission had found only the Mangalam TV channel and the individuals behind the purported conversation as being guilty.
Replying to another question on the authenticity of the conversation between Mr. Saseendran and the woman in question, the Chief Minister said the inferences and recommendations of the commission were based on the evidences before it.
Audio clip
The commission had clearly stated that the audio clip had been ‘edited and manipulated’ and that there was a ‘criminal conspiracy behind its telecasting’ to increase the channel’s rating and to engineer the Minister’s exit. The Cabinet has constituted a committee of officials headed by Chief Secretary K.M. Abraham to recommend action based on the 16 recommendations of the Antony commission, he added.