More legislators involved in Karnataka porngate

Several Karnataka legislators have viewed porn clips in the assembly and not just three Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ministers who quit over the issue Feb 8, a panel probing the incident said Thursday.

Shrishailappa Bidarur of BJP, who is heading the panel comprising assembly members, told reporters here that legal opinion was being sought on summoning all assembly members believed to have watched the clips.

Another BJP member on the panel Nehru Olekar claimed that at least 10 assembly members from different political parties have watched porn clips.

Ministers Laxman Savadi and C.C. Patil were caught Feb 7 by cameras of private TV channels watching a porn clip in the house on the cell phone, they said, belonged to another minister J. Krishna Palemar. They quit the next day following public outcry.

The three appeared before the panel in Bangalore Thursday. Savadi and Patil declined to talk to the media while Palemar said he has no role in the episode.

Assembly Speaker K.G. Bopaiah set up the seven-member panel -- four from BJP, two from Congress and one from Janata Dal-Secular -- to probe the incident. However the Congress and JD-S members are boycotting the panel meeting reducing it to a BJP affair.

The Congres and JD-S stand is that there is no need for a probe as TV cameras had caught the ministers in the act and they should be expelled from the assembly.

Bidarur said the panel will seek more time to submit its report, though the speaker had fixed March 13 for it.

"We will hold the next meeting March 15," Bidarur said.