The special court in Bengaluru has taken cognisance of the offence of defamation against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for allegedly issuing defamatory advertisement in mainstream newspapers falsely accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of allegedly indulging in a large-scale corruption during 2019-2023.
Preeth J., the judge of the special court of magistrate set up to deal with the criminal cases against former and the present MPs and MLAs from Karnataka, passed the order on a complaint lodged by the BJP.
“...I am satisfied that the complainant has made out a prima facie case to take cognisance of the offences under section 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code and to proceed further,” the court said in its order passed on June 13 while adjourning further hearing till July 27 for recording the sworn statement of the complainant.
False, baseless, and reckless allegations were made under the title ‘Corruption rate card’ based on the fanciful imagination of the accused persons in the advertisements issued on May 5, 2023, in all the mainstream newspapers in Karnataka during campaigning for the elections to the State Legislative Assembly, the BJP alleged in the complaint.
The false and defamatory advertisements were issued by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee through the accused Mr. Shivakumar, in his capacity as president of the KPCC, and Mr. Siddaiaramaih as the then Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, alleged in the complainant.
The KPCC and three accused persons had given rates under the names and style of “appointment and transfer rates, and job rates” for various posts and jobs, thereby falsely suggesting that the rate mentioned for each post and job is the money allegedly collected by the BJP government during 2019-2023, it has been alleged in the complaint.
Also, it has been alleged in the complaint that Mr. Gandhi had put up these ‘defamatory advertisements’ on his Twitter account.
