Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): Kerala Public Works Minister P J Joseph on Monday announced his decision to resign from the Cabinet after an inquiry found him guilty of sexual misconduct with a woman passenger onboard a private airliner.
He announced the decision after a meeting of the Kerala Congress (J), which he heads, on Monday afternoon.
''I don't want to continue in the Ministry under a cloud of suspicion. I am going to submit my resignation letter to Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan,'' he said.
The resignation comes a day after Inspector General of Police B Sandhya, who inquired into the charges, submitted her report.
The quitting of the most experienced hand in the Cabinet is seen as a major setback to the three-and-a-half-month-old CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front Government.
Trouble broke out for the 65-year-old Kerala Congress(J) leader, who had held key portfolios like Home, Revenue, Excise, Education and Housing in different governments, after a woman passenger on a Chennai-Kochi Kingfisher Airlines flight lodged a complaint with the pilot of the flight on August 3 that the person who sat behind her had misbehaved when cabin lights were switched off.
Joseph has become the third Minister recently to bow out of the Cabinet in Kerala on account of sex scandals.
In the previous Oommen Chandy Cabinet, senior Indian Union Muslim League leader and Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty resigned after a victim of a sex racket alleged he sexually abused her when she was a minor.
In the E K Nayanar Cabinet, Transport and Forest Minister Neelalohitadasan Nadar was asked to resign after a senior woman IAS officer alleged that the Minister tried to sexually abuse her.
Joseph was in the eye of a storm over allegations of financial irregularites during his previous term, in the Maitri Housing scheme for the poor. He managed to emerge virtually unscathed, however.
But the present controversy tightened the noose as the Chief Minister is a known crusader against crime involving women. It was his relentless fight against those involved in sex scandals that boosted Achuthanandan's image while he was Leader of Opposition.
As soon as the matter came to his notice, he deputed a senior woman IPS officer to probe it and made it clear there would be no place for Joseph in the Cabinet if the charges were proved true.
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