Image Courtesy: Deccan Herald
Just a week ahead of the crucial bypolls in the state of Karnataka, the Bengaluru City police has charged several top Congress and Janata Dal Secular (JDS) leaders and some senior police officers with Section 124A (sedition), Section 120A (criminal conspiracy), Section 499 (defamation) and Section 121 (attempting / abetting waging war against the Government of India) among others, The New Indian Express reported.
Those among the charged are former chief ministers Siddaramaiah and HD Kumaraswamy, senior leaders DK Shivakumar, Parameshwara, Dinesh Gundu and DC Thammanna among others.
The Commercial Street police, acted on a private complaint filed by an activist A Mallikarjun, a native of Gubbi taluk in Tumakuru, who had filed the same before the 82nd City Civil and Sessions court.
The charges by the lower court have been filed against the leaders for their statements against the Income Tax Department on March 27 and the protest in front of the IT office in the city on March 28, for opposing raids on Congress and JDS leaders, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections; which were an alleged violation of the model code of conduct the complainant said.
Mallikarjun said that the then city police commissioner T Suneel Kumar and the DCPs did not take any action against the protestors who caused hardships to the motorists and public, and asked the court to take action against the suspects.
The Bengaluru Police has also booked T Suneel Kumar, former DCP East Rahul Shadpurwad, former DCP Central Deveraju and six other police officers.
“The complainant had initially approached us and filed a complaint. But we had taken cognisance of the complaint and registered a non-cognisable report. He went to court and got the order on November 22. We are enforcing court orders,” the Commercial Street Police said to The News Minute.
“While hundreds of workers of both the political parties gathered, the leaders made speeches calling the I-T department an ‘agent of the BJP’. This amounts to obstructing I-T officials from discharging their duties. Besides, this led to major traffic snarls in the area. The police personnel who were present at the spot did not do anything to stop the protest,” the complainant stated.
Social media has broken out in protest over the charges filed against the former chief ministers and others, accusing the BJP of not tolerating dissent.
The @BJP4India does not tolerate any kind of dissent.
Are we still a democracy? @MahilaCongressPolice Books Siddaramaiah, Kumaraswamy & Others For Sedition Over Protests Against I-T Raids https://t.co/Xae2sl72U1
— Karnataka Pradesh Mahila Congress (@KarnatakaPMC) November 29, 2019
Dissent is the first thing they suppress in a Facist regime.
Police Books Siddaramaiah, Kumaraswamy & Others For Sedition Over Protests Against I-T Raids https://t.co/YPDVfMgDNG
— Lavanya Ballal | ಲಾವಣ್ಯ ಬಲ್ಲಾಳ್ (@LavanyaBallal) November 29, 2019
Former Karnataka CMs Siddaramaiah, Kumaraswamy booked for sedition, defamation .
This was expected. The frustration of losing Maharashtra.
The vendetta Politics continues .#bjpvindictivepolitics#Siddramaiah#Kumaraswamy https://t.co/IdAbOO83IP— Dr Jwala Gurunath (@DrJwalaG) November 29, 2019
On order of magistrate, sedition cases against top police officers, former Karnataka CMs Siddaramaiah, Kumaraswamy for remarks on income tax raids against Congress, JD-S leaders!
What kind of judge passes such orders, what kind of police officers obey. https://t.co/BgWo0QCtSL— Samar Halarnkar (@samar11) November 29, 2019
In March, Kumaraswamy had requested the Election Commission (EC) to intervene and stop the statewide Income Tax department raids on contractors and businessmen allegedly associated with the then ruling JD(S) and the Congress, India Today reported.
He had called the raids a “”shameful attempt to threaten the ruling allies and create fear among their cadres” and urged the panel to prevent harassment apart from calling them a “real surgical strike”.
Kumaraswamy, along with JD(S), had raised slogans against PM Modi he had accused the BJP government for “misusing” the IT department and other central agencies like the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) with whose help the raids were conducted.
In another news, Chief Minister of Karnataka, B S Yediyurappa has said that he is going to file a defamation suit against Siddaramaiah over his comment that the BJP ‘bought’ disqualified MLAs. Siddaramaiah and HD Kumaraswamy had accused the BJP of luring each of the 17 disqualified MLAs for Rs. 30 – 50 crore and make them resign to collapse the Kumaraswamy government.
“We will quickly start filing defamation case in the court against Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy for their defamatory and irresponsible statements,” the Chief Minister told The Week.
After a massive loss in Maharashtra, is the BJP resorting to ugly tactics to erase all opponents and gain foothold in Karnataka? If yes, will this money power and muscle power work to its advantage?
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