Jadab Lal Nath, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA who was embroiled in a state assembly controversy over a video clip on his phone, claimed on Thursday that obscene clips appeared on his phone after receiving a phone call.
"I am aware that mobile phones are not permitted during Assembly sessions. I do not know how this happened. I was not watching porn videos. I suddenly received a call and the video started playing when I opened it to check. I tried to close the video but closing it takes time," he said, according to the news agency ANI.
The cryptic response, which appeared to imply that the porn clips seen in a viral video were not on his phone, came amid a barrage of criticism directed at the BJP legislator from the Bagbassa assembly seat in north Tripura.
When asked if he had spoken with Tripura BJP president Rajib Bhattacharya about his next steps, the legislator told the news agency that he was told to "wait."
Tripura Congress president Birajit Sinha called it a "horrible incident" that harmed the reputation of all legislators. "This incident has harmed the reputation of all MLAs. This man should be punished appropriately. Because the use of mobile phones is strictly prohibited in the assembly, how could he watch pornography?" Sinha asked.
"We condemn the incident. We demand that the speaker of the assembly take action against Nath, or else people will take to the streets," said Animesh Debbarma, the leader of the Tipra Motha Party and the opposition leader in the assembly.
When asked about the demand, assembly speaker Biswabandhu Sen stated that no formal complaint had been filed against the MLA.
"If I receive a complaint, I shall surely take action in this regard. But no complaint has been lodged yet," PTI quoted him as saying.
In another incident earlier this month, the Railway Protection Force registered a case against unidentified employees of an ad agency Datta Communication for telecasting porn videos on the LED screen on the platform at Patna Junction.