Newly launched Malayalam news channel Mangalam TV created a sensation on Sunday by airing a sexually explicit phone conversation allegedly by former Kerala state Transport minister Saseendran.
At a time when the channel’s ethics were being questioned by many including journalists, Mangalam group CEO Ajith Kumar posted on many Whatsapp groups, an innocuous picture of Saseendran smiling at a young woman in an event.
On Monday night, he shared a photo of Saseendran looking at a woman while inaugurating a programme, in what seemed like an attempt to portray the Minister as a lecherous man.
The photo was posted in a WhatsApp group consisting of journalists, and a few questioned the need to post such a picture, and that too of a young woman.
The photo soon went viral forcing the woman’s family to lodge a complaint. The family was upset as some people started assuming that the woman in the picture was the one with whom the Minister had the phone conversation.
The 20-year-old woman hailing from Ariyallur in Malappuram is a student of an Interior Design Course at an Institute in Kozhikode. “The Institute conducted an exhibition two months ago and Saseendran had inaugurated it. The woman was holding the plate with a scissor on it, and the minister took the scissor from the plate to cut the ribbon. What is the problem if he smiled or looked at her? We have lodged a complaint at the Parappanagadi police station asking them to prevent sharing of the picture,” said Jiyesh, a DYFI activist and the woman’s neighbour.
“She is my friend’s sister. We were forced to lodge the complaint. Some people were even asking whether she was the woman with whom Saseendran had the phone conversation,” Jiyesh told TNM.
Parappanagadi Sub Inspector Jinesh said that the complaint had been forwarded to the cyber cell to access the IP address from which the photo was first shared. Meanwhile the girl’s family is also contemplating whether to file a complaint against Ajithkumar for posting the picture on Whatsapp groups.
“We are not clear who shared the photo first. But we can file a complaint against Ajithkumar even for sharing it,” Jiyesh said.
“We are also planning to approach the State Women’s Commission,” Jiyesh said.