They were caught ‘red-handed’ and they admitted to the ‘crime’. Now, they are disowning the ‘crime weapon’. In an attempt to give a new twist to the Porngate scandal in the Assembly – in which former ministers Laxman Savadi and C.C. Patil were caught watching a pornography clip on a mobile phone allegedly passed to them by their colleague Mr Krishna Palemar – the latter on Saturday said the ‘porn phone’ was not his at all and that he had no role in the sordid affair.

Mr Palemar told Deccan Chronicle that Mr Savadi had, in panic when confronted by the media, said the phone was his, but had later apologised to him. “After the entire episode, I questioned Mr Savadi why he had dragged my name into the controversy. He apologised and said he did not know what to answer when journalists questioned him and had taken my name in panic”.

Mr Palemar, who could land in jail for five years if the ‘porn phone’ was indeed his, pleaded innocence, saying he had no role in the scandal. Mr Savadi, trying to play safe, would not say one way or the other, but indicated he would stand by his story. “I have already shared the details of what led to the incident in which I was found watching the clip in the Assembly”. Asked to state explicitly whose phone it was, Mr Savadi said he would reveal all the details before the seven-member House Committee.