The Governor of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has got entangled in an alleged sex scandal, after a local TV channel Friday aired footage purportedly of the veteran Congress party leader with some women in compromising position.
However, the office of the Governor N.D. Tewari has rejected the footage as fabricated and a “tissue of lies”.
“The Governor is 86 years old and in the evening of his life. It is sad and unfortunate that constitutional functionaries are dragged in to needless controversies,” a statement by the Andhra Pradesh Raj Bhawan, the official residence of the state Governor, said.
The development amid the crisis in the state over the Telangana statehood issue triggered demands that the governor resign or be immediately dismissed by the central government, and also led to protests by women activists outside the Raj Bhavan, or governor’s house, where security was beefed up, after the private Telugu channel aired the footage for nearly an hour before the state High Court ordered to stop airing it.
In fact, it was the Raj Bhavan which had approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court, filed a public interest litigation against the TV channel and got an order to restrain it from further airing the visual, which was allegedly taken inside Raj Bhavan during the night.
The Legal Counsel for the Raj Bhavan Ravishanker Jandhyala told the media: “There is absolutely no truth in the alleged news story which is nothing but sensation mongering. The alleged news story is nothing but a ’tissue of lies’ and is denied. We will definitely file a defamation case. Already I have issued a notice in the afternoon (to the channel).”
The Leader of Opposition in Andhra Pradesh and Telugu Desam Party chief N. Chandrababu Naidu has demanded the sacking of Tiwari for his alleged involvement in the “scandal”.
“The only way for him (Tiwari) is to resign or the Centre should sack him,” he told the media, terming the incident as “a shocking incident”.