Sex tape case: K'taka excise minister HY Meti submits resignation to CM

Bengaluru: Karnataka excise minister HY Meti, who is embroiled in a sex tape controversy, submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday.

Meti landed in trouble after his aide threatened a Right To Information (RTI) activist to prevent release of a sex video tape involving him.

Although the sex videotape has not emerged anywhere, two audio tapes of telephonic threats allegedly by Meti's aides to an RTI activist have surfaced and were telecast by Kannada news channels.

In the audio tapes voices are heard asking the RTI activist not to release the video tape. While they promise to pay the activist money for not releasing the video tape, they also reportedly threaten him with "adverse consequences" if he releases it.

Meti, however, has denied the allegations and even went to the extent of challenging anyone to step forward and release the sex video tape in the public domain.

Meti's resignation comes just a day after the woman, Vijayalaxmi, who had accused the minister of seeking sexual favours in return for a transfer, claimed that she had made the accusation under duress and he was like a “father figure” to her.

However she added to the confusion later claiming that if the CD hit the public domain, Meti and his gunman would be responsible, and reportedly got admitted to a hospital in Bagalkote.

Backtracking on her statement of December 11, denying she was the woman in the video shown on TV channels, she told reporters in Bagalkot she was forced to make false sexual harassment charges against Meti by a group of four unidentified men, who threatened to kill her otherwise. “I have lodged an oral complaint with the Bagalkot superintendent of police against the four and sought police protection,” she added.

Alleging that the minister’s gunman, a district armed reserve (DAR) policeman, Subhas Mugalkhod, was behind the conspiracy to tarnish his image, Ms Vijayalakshmi claimed the four men had taken her to the Hubballi bypass road on November 22 and forcibly recorded her statement against him.

"I have been traumatised over the last month since making the charges against the minister. I earlier said I was not the women in the video because I was being threatened. I have a lot of respect for the minister, who is my distant relative. DAR constable Subhas has hatched this conspiracy," she alleged.

Superintendant of police, M.N. Nagaraj said the police would launch a search for Subhas Mugalkod, who was absconding after Vijayalaxmi lodged a complaint against him.

Meti was inducted in the state cabinet in June 2016.