I don't have 'such habits', says Palemar

Mangalore, February 8: Krishna J Palemar, who submitted his resignation along with his two cabinet colleagues to their ministerial berths over watching 'blue film clippings' in the Assembly, has pleaded his innocence.

Mr Palemar, who was handling a few prominent portfolios including Ports, Ecology, Environment and Science and Technology till Wednesday morning, said that he himself tendered the resignation without any pressure from the party top brass.

Mr Palemar, who was also the Dakshina Kannada district in-charge minister, said that he did not have “such habits”.

“Somebody might have forwarded those clippings to my cell phone. I don't know about it. I even don't know how to forward an SMS”, he said.

He also said that an independent probe would bring out the truth.

“When there is an allegation, it's not correct to continue as Minister”, he said. “There is a wrong perception (on the issue) and let there be an inquiry“.

Mr Palemar is facing charge of providing the blue film clippings to Minister for Cooperation Laxman Savadi during the Assembly proceedings.

Mr Savadi was caught on Tuesday while he was viewing the porno video footage inside the state assembly, an incident that battered the image of the Sadananda Gowda Government and BJP, evoking widespread condemnation across the state.

The Kannada TV channels had beamed the uncensored visuals of Mr. Savadi watching the footage. The channels also showed Women and Child Welfare Minister C C Patil peeping into the footage.

Mr Savadi later in a press meet revealed that the mobile on which he watched the sex video indeed belonged to Mr Palemar. He also had said that Mr. Palemar was showing him a video wherein a woman was gang-raped in a foreign country.

Mr Savadi and Mr Patil demanded that the Speaker of the state assembly K G Bopaiah institute a probe into the issue of watching the porn video footage and expressed confidence that "they would come clean from the allegations".