Zonal officer caught watching porn during meeting, suspended

A zonal officer of Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) was caught on camera allegedly watching porn clipping on his mobile during the general body meeting of the civic body, prompting the authorities to suspend him on Thursday.

BMC Zonal Officer (Zone 10), Anil Sharma, was allegedly caught watching a porn movie on January 18 when the general body meeting of the corporation was in progress.

The meeting, among others, was atte-nded by Mayor, commissioner and corporators.

“Anil Sharma was suspended on Monday after the probe panel submitted its initial report to me. In the report, Sharma was found guilty,” municipal commissioner Tejasvi Nayak said. BMC public relation officer Premshanker Shukla said, “The act came to light on Wednesday when a TV channel aired the footage of Sharma allegedly watching the porn film in the meeting.”

The civic body chief had taken a serious view of the matter and constituted a committee comprising additional commissioner Sanjay Kumar and city engineer A.K. Nanda and Shukla himself, to probe the matter and give initial report within 24 hours, he added.

“Nayak had already told me that if Sharma is found guilty in the initial report, stern action will be taken against him,” Shukla said.

As per the committee's investigation, a TV journalist had caught Sharma's act from the media gallery, the BMC PRO said adding that his conduct was “unbecoming” of a government officer. Repeated attempts to contact the zonal officer failed.