Before the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Bengaluru, the BJP has filed a defamation complaint against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, and the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).
The Indian Penal Code Sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) have been taken into consideration by the special court in Bengaluru for an alleged defamatory advertisement that falsely accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of engaging in widespread corruption between 2019 and 2023.
On the basis of a complaint filed by the BJP, Preeth J., the judge of the special court of magistrate established to handle criminal cases against former and current Karnataka MPs and MLAs, issued the order.
S Keshavaprasad, the party’s state secretary, filed the private complaint on May 9 claiming that advertisements made false claims, harming the BJP’s image.
The complaint claims that the KPCC’s advertisement in major newspapers on May 5, 2023, claiming that the then-initiated BJP government engaged in “40 percent corruption” and had looted Rs 1.5 lakh crore over the previous four years was “baseless, prejudiced, and defamatory.”