Merin Joseph, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Kerala cadre, who recently hogged the limelight after her photograph with Malayalam film industry's rising star Nivin Pauly went viral on social media, has finally opened up about the episode terming it as a "non-issue".
After the photograph--taken by Congress MLA Hibi Eden during an event in Ernakulam and posted on Facebook--went viral, some reports had claimed that the officer was scolded by her superiors for allegedly violating the protocol despite being a responsible officer.
Days after it happened, the IPS officer expressed her displeasure about the incident on her Facebook account, saying she did not react on the matter then as she does not react to non-issues.
"I am pointing out that the pic was taken by MLA Hibi Eden after securing his consent and that too, during a lighter moment of laughter over a shared joke," Merin wrote on her Facebook page.
She also slammed the media, which she accused of lacking journalistic ethics, by trying to define protocols for officers.
"I don't know why some dubious, unheard-of news channel, which doesn't have the slightest idea of journalistic ethics, is trying to define protocols for officers," she wrote.
Joseph also questioned what else she must have done since there was a long gap during the function and clarified that she was a guest at the event and was not on official duties.
"When such a gap is there, the Home Minister has already left the venue and the other guests on the stage have moved aside, what am I as a guest with no other duties supposed to do? Jump off the stage? Stand in attention saluting the audience?? Or go sit in an available chair in the corner of the stage and keep myself occupied" she wrote, addressing the media.
The IPS officer also accused the media of sensationalising things as she advised the journalists not to resort to such "desperate means" as "the only means for them to earn their livelihood".
Read the full Facebook post of Merin Joseph IPS below:
Why didn't I react so far to the so-called controversy caused over my photo with Mr. Nivin Pauly at the MLA function in...
Posted by Merin Joseph on Thursday, 16 July 2015
Merin, Nivin and Eden were the chief guests at St Teresa's College in Ernakulam to felicitate the students who had secured top positions in SSLC and plus two examinations.
Earlier, in September 2014, as an IPS trainee, Joseph had become an internet sensation for being an attractive woman.
