Vijayawada: AP's Endowments Minister and Tadepalligudem MLA Pydikondala Manikyala Rao put out a bizarre defence of Ghazal Srinivas, accused in a sexual harassment case which has hit the headlines. The minister claimed that Ghazal Srinivas was a highly ethical person on Wednesday. The BJP leader in a specially convened press conference to tell the world that Ghazal Srinivas was known to him since his childhood and that he was not the sort of person who would indulge in sexual harassment. He completely the ignored that fact that a woman, despite social stigma against those complain about sexual harassment, came out in the open and exposed the world famous singer with necessary evidence including video clips.

Manikyala Rao said the complaint could be false as Ghazal Srinivas never behaved in a disrespectful way with any woman as per his knowledge. He appeared to be insensitive to the victim's claim that he was acting decently when in public but behaved in a vulgar manner in privacy and even threatened to incriminate her in some case or the other if she left the organization. She was in a shock and under the terrible influence of the torture she underwent, broke down several times in a live interview broadcast on Sakshi TV on Wednesday.

The minister, after a few hours, realized his mistake and came to the media again this time to demand stringent action against Ghazal Srinivas. "He is such an abhorrent person--I never imagined that he would be like this in my dreams," this senior political leader says. He even added that Ghazal Srinivas must be punished stringently as his act brought shame on the entire humanity. "I feel so ashamed of myself for speaking out in support of Ghazal Srinivas," Rao said.

He later explained that he watched the videos after his first press conference.