BENGALURU: In a big relief for former Karnataka deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, the Karnataka high court on Tuesday stayed for four weeks the further investigation in pursuance of the FIR registered against him by the Devaraja police in Mysuru city on May 24,2023 in connection with his alleged provocative speech made on February 15,2023 at Mandya.
In his interim order Justice M Nagaprasanna has noted that the soul of of the section 153 of IPC is that any statement made by any person should be so provocative that it should result in rioting or even if it does not result in any rioting, it should be capable of resulting in rioting.
"No such incident is narrated as the statement was made on February 15,2023 and we are three months away.. Therefore, the dominant ingredient of section 153 is prima facie not met. In the light of offence not meeting the prima facie the ingredient of section 153 and the improbability of such an offence being met on the ingredients noted in the complaint, permitting further proceedings/investigation against the petitioner would run foul of the judgement of the Supreme Court in the case of state of State of Haryana v/s Bhajan Lal", the Judge further noted in the order while directing the police to file their statement of objections.
The FIR came to be registered on the basis of complaint filed on May 24,202,by3 one Lakshmana, an office bearer of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) for offences under sections 153 and 506 of the IPC.The complainant had alleged that Dr Ashwath Narayan’s usage of Urigowda and Nanjegowda, two historical characters of Tipu Sultan era was provocative and he apprehends trouble for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, as happened in August 2022 when visited Kodagu to assess rain damage.
Only a metaphor
In his petition, Dr Ashwath Narayan, who got re-elected from Malleswaram constituency has claimed that that reference of the two Tipu Sultan era characters as a metaphor to a political fight and an electoral victory,without any intention of causing any sort of injury either to verbally or physically to the then leader of the opposition( Siddaramaiah)
“The statement was made only with an intention of defeating another political rival in the election and it is abundantly clear that it was not meant in any literal sense,but more of a vanquishing an opponent by way of an electoral poll” Dr Ashwath Narayan has stated in his petition.
He further added that the FIR lacks prima facie materials as it doesn’t even disclose as to who is the affected party/victim of the statement alleged to have caused threat and criminal intimidation.
Second complaint
Appearing on behalf of Dr Ashwath Narayan, senior advocates Prabhuling K Navadgi and Lakshmi Iyengar claimed that that though the alleged statement was made on February 15, upon change of the state government the complaint has been registered which is basically a second complaint on the same issue which is impermissible in law.The court was told that earlier, a complaint was registered on February 17 ,2023 and a NCR has been registered and the same was not taken further.
Navadgi told the court that the complaint is bereft of any materials, no video or audio recordings or any newspaper report in support of the assertions made in the complaint.He added that the petitioner had already clarified his position vis-a-vis the said speech
