“Palemar is innocent,”: ex-minister's supporters hold public meeting in Surathkal

Mangalore, February 13: Supporters of the former minister and Mangalore north MLA Krishna J. Palemar rallied behind the beleaguered leader, who relinquished his ministerial position following his alleged involvement in porngate.

At a meeting held in the central maidan of Suratkal under the banner of “Krishna Palemar Abhimanigala Sangha” speakers after speakers defended the former Minister and insisted that he was innocent.

Mayor Praveen, former mayors Shankar Bhat, Ganesh Hosabettu, Rajani Dugganna, corporators Tilak Raj, Sumitra Madhukiran, Santhosh, Sharath, Bhaskar Chandra Shetty, Surekha, Shakuntala, Mahabala Poojary, Aziz Baikampady, businessman P.M.A Razak, Vishwanath Shetty were the prominent participants.

Corporators Revathi, Yasavantha Meenakaliya, Shanta R. Suratkal block BJP president Sharatchandra Shetty and Satyajit Suratkal were conspicuously absent.

Palemar has contributed immensely for the development of the district. The allegations leveled against him of watching a blue film inside the Assembly is completely baseless. He has come up in life the hard way. He responded to the problems of the disadvantaged sections of the society. He will come clean of all the allegations on February 13, the speakers said.

Earlier, speaking at a press meet at Suraj Hotel, Shankar Bhat claimed that Mr. Palemar was not tech savvy and did not know how to operate mobile phone. Even when we call him, it is his secretary who attends the call. We were in Gujrat when the scandal broke and initially his name did not figure in the scandal. But his name was dragged due to political pressure, Mr. Bhat said.

However, he did not give a proper answer when asked about their strategy in the event of Mr. Palemar being disqualified from the Assembly. He also answered in the negative when asked if the corporators would put in their papers to express their moral support to the beleaguered leader.