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Solve it in nice manner: A K Saseendran tells woman's father to 'resolve' harassment complaint

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 7/22/2021 12:09:08 PM

Thiruvananthapuram, July 21 Kerala minister and NCP leader AK Saseendran has courted controversy after he allegedly tried to settle a sexual harassment case involving a party member by talking to the complainant's father. In an alleged audio tape, Saseendran purportedly told the complainant's father, who is also an officebearer of the NCP, to "solve it in a nice manner". Saseendran, who is the forest minister in the LDF government in Kerala, accepted that he intervened to solve a complaint against a party functionary but claimed that he did not know about the molestation angle. "When there was a complaint against party activists, I spoke to one of the party functionaries. At the time, he said it was his daughter and so I asked him to solve it in a nice manner. I used the same word. He then asked me how, for which I responded 'you know that well'," the minister said. The complainant, who is a member of BJP Yuva Morcha, had alleged that an NCP member named Padmakaran grabbed her hands and made lewd remarks. She also claimed that her fake Facebook profile was created and she was defamed through WhatsApp messages. The complainant's father claimed that though they filed a complaint before the police on June 28, no case has been registered yet. According to the police, most of the charges in her complaint were related to defamation. On molestation, the police said the complainant couldn't identify the date or time on which the said incident took place and that is the reason for not registering a case. In the purported conversation, Saseendran could be heard telling the father, "There is some small case against our party people." The complainant's father then said his daughter is now a member of the BJP. "How should I solve it, they are BJP people," he could be heard saying. "If it comes as a controversy, it is bad. You know how to solve well. Don't you know?" the minister replied. The opposition parties have demanded AK Saseendran's resignation. "Minister AK Sasindran has violated his oath of office by asking the girl's father to settle the case. The Left government has transformed Kerala into a land of compromise on smuggling, murder and oppression of women," a tweet by Kerala Congress read. BJP's Kerala unit president K Surendran said, "Forest Minister AK Saseendran has exerted pressure to suppress a molestation case filed against a local NCP leader. He even called the victim's father and told him to 'settle the case in a good way.' Ministers like him is a disgrace to our democracy. He should resign." In March 2017, AK Saseendran resigned from the LDF government after an audio tape emerged in which he was heard having a lewd conversation with a woman on phone. He was reinstated later.