Whose mobile handset that was it which was used by former ministers C.C. Patil and Laxman Savadi to surf the porn clippings? The porngate involving three former BJP ministers has taken a new twist with J. Krishna Palemar and Laxman Savadi contradicting each other over the ownership of the mobile phone.
Mr Palemar has claimed that Mr Savadi had tendered apology to him for dragging his name into the controversy. “After the entire episode I questioned Mr Savadi as to why he dragged my name. He tendered an apology and told me that he did not know what to answer when mediapersons pounced on him. Mr Savadi confided to me that he took my name in confusion,” Mr Palemar told this newspaper.
Mr Palemar pleaded innocence saying that he had not committed any blunders in the entire episode.
However, Mr Savadi is not ready buy Mr Palemar’s account. In a veiled but loaded statement, Mr Savadi said, “I had already shared the details about what led to the incident in which I was found watching the clippings in the Assembly.”
Asked to make an explicit statement on the issue of ownership of the mobile handset, Mr Savadi said that he would reveal all the details pertaining to the ownership of the phone and what led to that incident only before the seven-member House committee. “I don’t want to create more complications about the issue by giving any statements on the issue now. I will not give off-record or on-record (statements) to anybody,” he said.
Mr Savadi gave an indication that he may stick to his earlier statement that the mobile he used when caught red-handed by media photographers was of Mr Palemar. He is expected to reveal more on the incident when he arrives in Athani on Sunday along with hundreds of his supporters who have gone to Bengaluru to accompany him back to Athani.