It was a political conspiracy: Nirmala

Nirmala Vankatesh, the sacked member of the National Commission for Women (NCW), attacked the central government on Monday, terming her removal a "political conspiracy".

Women and Child Development Minister Renuka Chowdhury had sacked Vankatesh on Friday for allegedly failing to conduct an impartial enquiry into the attacks on women at a pub in Mangalore.

Venkatesh defended her controversial report on the Mangalore pub attack, saying she had the power tou00a0take suo moto action in her capacity as a member of the commission.

In her report, Venkatesh had blamed the pub owners for the attack carried out by Sri Ram Sene on young girls. The Women and Child Development Ministry had then sent a separate team to enquire into the incident.

Women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhary had defended the step, saying the former had violated her mandate. "There is a clear mandate given for the NCW and violation of that attracts removal," she had said.

A statement issued by the Ministry of Women and Child Development had said, "Venkatesh's report on the attack was not accepted by the Commission for several inadequacies and she was also criticised for going public with her findings before submitting it. Her doing so was outside her mandate and the rights of a member."

Press meet messed up

The press meet was disrupted for a while when a man claiming to be a journalist came to the press meet hall and started verbally attacking Nirmala. Though her lawyer and Nirmala asked him to stop, he continued to use foul language. Then journalists and those who came along with Nirmala beat him and threw him out of the press meet hall.