The Karnataka Congress filed a FIR against former minister and BJP MLA CN Ashwath Narayan for his statements against CM Siddaramaiah, just a few days after setting up the government in Karnataka.
Ashwath Narayan, the former BJP government's higher education minister, was named in the complaint for his controversial "finish-off Siddaramaiah" remark. During a public rally this February, he encouraged people to "finish off" Siddaramaiah in the same way that two Vokkaliga chieftains, Uri Gowda and Nanje Gowda, had killed 17th-century Mysuru ruler Tipu Sultan.
Opposing this, Pratap Simha, MP for Mysuru, slammed the Congress on Thursday for bringing a new complaint against Narayan for "unsavoury statements said in the heat of the moment,'' claiming misuse of authority.
On Wednesday, A delegation of Congress workers led by KPCC spokesperson M Lakshmana, Mysuru district congress committee president Dr B J Vijaykumar and six advocates filed a complaint at the Devaraja police station in Mysuru, and an FIR was registered under Sections 506 and 153 of the IPC, which include intimidation and provocation.
"Such remarks are made in the heat of election campaigning, and the statement was not accepted by anyone in the party." However, after failing to make a case since February, the Congress waited for so long and has now pushed the police to file an FIR, according to Pratap Simha.
Narayan, on the other hand, has stayed silent and has not responded to this development. But Narayan had previously stated on social media that he had merely meant to remark that Congress should lose the polls. "Let me make my stand clear. The words used to compare Tipu Sultan and Siddaramaiah in Mandya are casual allusions and not malicious words. But my words are being misconstrued. It wasn't meant to hurt anyone."
Complaint lodged against BJP MLA in Puttur
In a similar case, the Puttur town police have filed an FIR against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Harish Poonja for saying that Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had "gotten 24 Hindu activists killed." Harish Poonja, who is representing the Belthangady Assembly member in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada district for the second time, allegedly made the remark while criticising Hindutva supporters who campaigned for Congress. Audio and video clips of the purported statement, which he made while speaking at a Belthangady event last week, have become popular on social media.
According to sources, Belthangady Mahila Congress President Namitha K Poojary filed a police complaint against Harish Poonja's statement, accusing him of instigating communal hatred and breaking the peace. The FIR was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony), and 505 (statements conducive to public mischief).
