Women and children's development minister Renuka Chowdhury on Friday sacked National Commission for Women (NCW) member Nirmala Venkatesh for her alleged failure to conduct an unbiased inquiry into the Mangalore pub attack.

In a notification, Chowdhury said Nirmala was sent to probe the assault on women in a pub by the Sri Rama Sene, but she went public and "acted in a way which was detrimental to public interest".

Nirmala was also charged with making the report public before it was submitted to the government and for making derogatory remarks that women should not wear revealing and provocative dresses, a statement she retracted.

Nirmala, who led an NCW team to probe the January 24 attack on women at the pub Amnesia, said it did "not have enough security" and that "women have to safeguard themselves". She said the pub owner did have a proper licence to operate, which led to a complaint against her.

While the NCW distanced itself from Nirmala's remarks and dubbed her report "null and void", the ministry sent its own probe team on February 1. The inquiry conducted by Kiran Chaddha, a senior official in Chowdhury's ministry, differed from Nirmala's.

After the ministry's report was made public on February 3, Nirmala said Chowdhury did not have statutory powers to conduct the inquiry.

Vineeta Pandey/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication