‘Porngate’: Guj Speaker says MLAs clean,cites FSL report

Chaudhary and Bharwad were accused of surfing obscene photos for nearly 20 minutes when the session was under way between noon and 12.50 pm that day. A journalist with a vernacular daily,who had captured them surfing the iPad on his mobile phone camera,had brought the matter to the Speaker’s notice.

The FSL report confirmed it was Chaudhary’s iPad since it has his email ID,mlaradhanpur@gmail.com,configured on it.

Quoting from the FSL report,Vasava said,“On March 20,the Internet was not used on this iPad before 1 pm and so there is no question of visiting any website. Thus,it’s not proven that any porn or objectionable material was surfed on the Internet. The other data stored on the Ipad had 4,161 photos and 11 videos,but no pornographic or obscene or objectionable material.”

Vasava also handed over newspaper clippings on the alleged porngate to the privileges committee of the Assembly along with records,photos,video clippings,webpage details of the iPad and the FSL report.

Besides the forensic probe on the iPad,Vasava had also ordered a probe against the newspapers that had reported the episode on March 21,calling it a breach of privilege of the Assembly.

After the episode led to a ruckus in the Assembly on March 21,Chaudhary had handed over his iPad to the Speaker for investigation. “I handed over the iPad to the FSL the same day,” Vasava told the House.

The Speaker later blamed the Congress for disrupting the House proceedings for three days on the issue,calling it “unfortunate”.

Shaktisinh Gohil,the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the Assembly who has been suspended for the entire Budget Session,questioned the credibility of the FSL,which functions under the state government.

“Gujarat FSL has no credentials. It will certainly favour the government. We have already said the MLA submitted his iPad more than 24 hours after the incident. Anyone can change the instrument during that period,” Gohil said.

“However,we still demand that the iPad should be given to central FSL for investigation and the eye- witness journalist should be examined by a special committee of the House,” he added.