Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of Karnataka and his deputy, D.K. Shivakumar, are granted bail by the court after they personally appeared there in answer to a summons.
Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader, has been summoned to appear before a Bengaluru court in connection with a defamation complaint filed by the BJP leader. He has been scheduled to appear in court on June 7.
In relation to the incident, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar were both granted bail by the Special Court for People’s Representatives in Bengaluru.
Keshav Prasad, the general secretary of the BJP, filed the defamation lawsuit on the purportedly fraudulent advertisements. Gandhi was scheduled to appear before the Bengaluru court, but he did not show up. Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar made personal appearances. The BJP objected, claiming that Gandhi should not have been granted an exemption under CrPC 205 ( the Magistrate, exercising his discretion, may dispense with the personal attendance of the accused while issuing summons, and allow them to appear through their pleader) because this was his second appearance-skipping incident.
The Congress, on the other hand, had claimed that Gandhi was a candidate in the Lok Sabha elections and was present at the INDIA bloc meeting in New Delhi. As a result, the Congress had asked the court to excuse Gandhi from the hearing on Saturday. They also pledged that the leader of the Congress would be there on the following date. Gandhi was given an exemption by the court and ordered to appear in person on June 7.
The Congress ran a “40% Sarkara” campaign in the lead-up to the Karnataka Assembly election in 2023, alleging the former BJP government of taking a 40% commission on public works and outrageous bribes in posting and recruitment. They also displayed ‘PayCM’ posters with a QR code that featured the then-chief minister Basavaraj Bommai in the center. By scanning the QR code, users would be redirected to a website created by the Congress, where they would see content that accused the BJP of allowing widespread corruption to exist in the state.In its case, the BJP charged that the Congress was waging a campaign of defamation against the party’s government at the time.
