An 86-year-old Congress Party official was forced to resign yesterday after a television news channel broadcast footage allegedly showing him in bed with three young women.
Narayan Dutt Tiwari, the governor of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, insisted that the video was fabricated, as did his party, but Congress leaders demanded that he resign on “health grounds”.
The incident is a rare example of a senior politician embroiled in a sex scandal in a country where the media rarely exposes the private lives of public figures — even when their indiscretions are widely known.
The three-and-a-half-minute video is said to show the frail politician — whose wife died in 1993 — with the women at his official residence. The figure in the video is shown lying on a bed while the naked and scantily clad women kiss him and perform sex acts.
The video was released only a month after a court rejected a paternity suit against Mr Tiwari, from a man claiming to be the son of a Congress Party activist who is alleged to have had an extramarital affair with Mr Tiwari.
On Friday a court issued an injunction to stop the television station ABN Andhra Jyoti News from continuing to broadcast the video but it has became one of the most popular clips on YouTube. The station said that the video was made and released to embarrass the politician over a financial dispute. It said that a woman called Radikha arranged the sting after Mr Tiwari promised her a lucrative mining contract in return for arranging regular liaisons for him with women — but then reneged on his side of the deal. For more information please click here
