No illegality committed by Ker Forest Minister A K Saseendran as of now: Senior NCP leaders

Senior NCP leaders on Wednesday said they presently do not think any illegality has been committed by Kerala Forest Minister A K Saseendran who is being accused of trying to settle a sexual harassment case involving a party member in Kollam.

T P Peethambaran, the National Secretary of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), said the minister only tried to resolve some party-related issue in Kollam and beyond that he did not interfere in any sexual harassment case.

Kerala State President of NCP, P C Chacko, too responded on similar lines with regard to the allegations against Saseendran, saying the minister never asked the victim's father -- the Kundra Block president of NCP -- to withdraw the case and only asked him to resolve amicably whatever the party-related issue was.

Chacko said whether there was any abuse of official position or interference in a criminal case by the minister has to be explained by Saseendran and a decision on that has to be taken by the state government.

However, according to the party neither the state government nor Saseendran can be blamed on moral or legal grounds in the present issue, he said and added that it was a ''deliberate attempt to defame'' the minister.

He said all the people, including Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan, calling for Saseendran's resignation were doing so without knowledge of the complete facts.

Meanwhile, Saseendran met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at his official residence.

After themeeting, he told the media that he informed the chief minister about the entire issue and his role in the matter and Vijayan heard him out.

Saseendran, however, did not say what the chief minister's response was.

Chacko, while meeting mediapersons in Delhi, said that as far as NCP was concerned, two of its General Secretaries have been sent to Kollam to ascertain what had happened and based on their report if it is found that some party member there acted in a manner which brings disrepute to the party, then strict action would be taken against them.

He said, according to his information, there was some monetary dispute between party members there, in relation to which some NCP members had approached the minister to call the block president to resolve the matter and that is why Saseendran had made the call.

He further said that the complaint of sexual harassment lodged by the girl was a separate issue which the police should investigate and take appropriate action in accordance with the law and added that NCP would not be interfering with that for any reason.

Chacko said that if a complaint has been made, it was the responsibility of the police to investigate it and NCP will not be trying to ''hush it up'' or dissuade the agency from doing its job.

He also said that if the NCP block president of Kundra was facing such an issue from a fellow party member, he should have sent a complaint to the party.

However, in the instant case the party came to know about the issue only after it all came out in the media, he said.

On Tuesday, Saseendran drew flak from the Congress, BJP and other political parties for his alleged interference in the sexual harassment case.

Satheesan had demanded that the minister resign or be removed from the cabinet, while state BJP president K Surendran alleged that Saseendran has violated his oath of office and that the government has ''failedmiserably'' in terms of ensuring security for women.

The Muslim Youth League's Ernakulam District Committee's vice-president Sajal had lodged a complaint with thepolice, seeking action against Saseendran for trying tosuppress the sexual harassment case.

The issue came to the fore after Malayalam news channelsstarted airing an alleged telephonic conversation betweenSaseendran and the woman's father, seeking to settle the issueby mutual agreement.

Subsequently, the minister had told the media that he did callup the girl's father, but to try and settle what he thought was a dispute in the party.

He had claimed that when he found out that it was a case ofattempted sexual assault, he did not intervene any further.

The woman from Kollam, however, has claimed before the mediathat the minister initially tried to get the matter settled byintervening indirectly through others and then directly called up her father.

The woman, a BJP member, said the NCP member in questionhad asked her in March whether she had joined BJP to earnmoney and if so, he would pay her and had then allegedlygrabbed her arm.

However, she had not lodged a complaint then.

Thereafter, the NCP member used to mock her at various fora and then on June 28 posted her election campaign poster on WhatsApp with the comment that her father got herto join BJP for earning money.

On seeing this, she told her father about the earlierincident and he said a complaint should be lodged with police.

She has further alleged that though they managed to registera complaint and get a receipt, thereafter none of the policeofficers, including the SHO and Circle Inspector, wereinterested in probing the matter or taking action against theNCP leader.PTI HMP SS PTI PTI