A magistrate’s court in Thiruvananthapuram today sentenced sitting MLA A Neelalohitadasan Nadar to three months in jail for sexually assaulting a senior IAS officer in the state while he was a minister in 1999. He was also ordered to pay a fine of Rs 50,000.This is the second time that Nadar is being convicted on sexual assault charges. Last year, he was handed a one-year jail sentence by a magistrate’s court in Kozhikode for outraging the modesty of an IFS officer. Nadar has gone on appeal against that sentence.This case had its genesis in a complaint that the IAS officer, Nalini Netto, made to the then CM E K Nayanar. Netto, then the state transport secretary, had alleged that Nadar who was then the transport minister, had sexually assaulted her in his chamber, and was making lewd phone calls as well. Nadar was forced to resign in the uproar that followed.Soon after, Prakriti Srivastava, a Divisional Forest Officer who had deposed as a witness in the Netto case hearing, came up with a similar charge of her own. The DFO complained to the cops that Nadar, who was earlier the state Forest Minister, had summoned her to the Government Guest House in Kozhikode and attempted to sexually assault her.Nadar is the first Kerala politician to be convicted for sexual misdemeanours.
