The Kerala High Court on Wednesday rejected the bail pleas of Mangalam TV channel’s CEO R Ajithkumar and its senior journalist R Jayachandran, respectively first and second accused in the case pertaining to the sting operation done through honey trap route against NCP leader AK Saseendran, who resigned as State Transports Minister after the channel telecast an audio clip of a phone conversation in which he was heard making lewd remarks to a woman.
The court refused to grant bail to the duo because the unedited version of the recording of the phone conversation between the Former Minister and the woman - who turned out to be an employee of the channel and was part of an eight-member ‘investigation team’ - was yet to be recovered. However, the court granted bail to three channel employees Feroze Muhammad, MB Santh-
osh and SV Pradeep, respectively the third, fourth and fifth accused. It granted anticipatory bail to two other accused, who were yet to be arrested.