I am the most honest journalist, claims K P Mohanan of Asianet

Many among the audience present during the seminar “Media and the Changing India” organized by the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee in Thiruvanamthapuram on Monday were finding it difficult to suppress their laughter when one of the participants claimed about his honesty and integrity. The person  was none other than K P Mohanan, Managing Editor, Asianet News. The fact that Mohanan was on the run from the law enforcing agencies of Kuwait was reported widely in Kerala. Mohanan, a former scribe with Kuwait Times, absconded from the oil kingdom in 1999  with money swindled from the India Community School there.

Following a detailed trial, the Kuwait First Instance Court sentenced Mohanan and another accomplice to eight years rigorous imprisonment. But Mohanan had by that time joined Asianet as Vice-President and was ensconced in the safe and serene environment of Puliyarakonam near the state capital. Though the Kuwait government tried to get him extradited, the fact that there was no extradition treaty between India and Kuwait came to his help. As per an arrest warrant issued by the Kuwait Justice Ministry, Mohanan is liable to be arrested if he visits any of the Gulf Cooperation Council states. It is interesting to note that Mohanan has not gone out of India since 1999.

One of the participants, John Brittas of the CPM’s Kairali TV who shared the stage with Mohanan on Monday, was seen laughing aloud when the latter claimed about his honesty and integrity. It was Brittas who produced and directed a two episode programme featuring Mohanan and his nefarious activities in Kuwait which was telecast in Kairali TV in 1999.

Mohanan who created the maximum noise (one of the leading scribes in the capital city described Mohanan’s speech as the greatest environmental pollution!), went to the extent of glorifying the Emergency days of 1975-77. “The Emergency period was the Golden Era for journalists. News coverage was at its peak during those days,” claimed Mohanan much to the astonishment of people like even M M Hassan, the former Congress minister who swears by media freedom.

The Asianet news boss, popularly knownamong colleagues as Ozhukkathu Sankaradas (a character created by the late Veloor Krishnankutty) is trying his best to keep both the Congress and the CPM in good humor. There are reasons for his shenanigan. Mohanan is also one of the prime suspects in the infamous Kiliroor and Kaviyoor sex scandals in which Sari S Nair and Anagha, two teen aged girls  lost their lives.

Interestingly, Mohanan tried his best to be present at the occasion when the Asianet TV management handed over the relief for the Gujarat earth quake victims to the then Prime Minister A B Vajpayee. But it was reported that the intelligence agencies did not allow him anywhere near the Prime Minister’s office because of the Kuwait School controversy.  

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