The Bengaluru city police on Wednesday (November 27) booked former chief ministers HD Kumaraswamy and Opposition leader Siddaramaiah along with Congress, JD(S) supporters and police officers on charges of sedition and defamation.
Top cops including then city police commissioner T Suneel Kumar, former DCP East Rahul Shadpurwad, former DCP Central Deveraju and 6 others have been booked for violating the model code of conduct (MCC) by protesting outside Bengaluru's Income Tax office in Queen's road ahead of the Lok Sabha elections on March 27.
An FIR was registered by the Commercial Street police based on a complaint by an activist named A Mallikarjun from Tumakuru district of the state. He alleged that Kumaraswamy had allegedly leaked information on IT raids in Mandya district of Karnataka to the media, even before the raids were conducted.
Mallikarjun claimed that Congress and JD(S) leaders have violated the MCC by staging a protest outside the IT office, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and the city police did not initiate any actions against the protestors. He claimed that the protest had caused severe disruption for the public.
JD(S), Congress leaders stage protest
The leaders of Congress and JD(S) had staged a protest outside the IT office accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using the central agencies like the Income Tax, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to target opposition leaders.
When DK Shivakumar was arrested by the ED in connection with a money laundering case Congress leader and AICC Incharge of Karnataka, KC Venugopal had tweeted from his personal handle calling BJP a fascist government. He said that "it is a clear case of political vendetta by the fascist government at the Centre."
The police have booked senior politicians including Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President Dinesh Gundu Rao, Congress troubleshooter and legislator DK Shivakumar, Former Dy CM and Congress MLA Dr G Parameshwara along with others on charges of sedition, defamation and under 23 other Sections including (405) criminal breach of trust, (120-A) criminal conspiracy and (417) cheating of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
