Karnataka HC stays probe into case of promoting enmity against BJP MP Tejasvi Surya over post on farmer’s death

“Therefore, there shall be an interim order of stay in any investigation against the petitioner,” the HC ruled.

During the arguments, the HC suggested that the social media post by the BJP MP would “at best be a criticism of the government” while the state public prosecutor argued that the comments amounted to the promotion of enmity between communities.

The HC noted that the post was deleted after the police issued a clarification stating that the death of the farmer occurred in 2022 due to his inability to pay debts. The HC bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna was informed by the MP’s counsel that the father of the deceased farmer had stated to the media recently that the death of his son was due to the identification of his land as Waqf property.

The Haveri CEN police registered an FIR under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita’s Section 353 (2) – equivalent to Section 505 (2) of the IPC – for promoting enmity between communities through false statements on the basis of a complaint by Sunil Huchanavar, a police constable and member of the social media monitoring unit of the Haveri police.

The social media post of the MP referred to fake reports in the news portal Kannada Dunia E-Paper and Kannada News E-Paper which claimed that “a farmer died by suicide because of Waqf claims on his land,” the police complaint alleged.

According to the police complaint, the reports in the Kannada news portals said that a farmer named Rudrappa of Haranagi village in Haveri district died by suicide after four acres of his land were identified as belonging to the Waqf board by state authorities. The news reports also claimed farmers were protesting against notices issued in the name of Waqf as a consequence.

“When a fact check was conducted by the social media unit of the police into the claims made by the BJP MP and the Kannada online news portals it was found that the farmer had died by suicide in January 2022 due to huge loans and inability to repay the debts and a case was registered in the Adoor Police Station in Haveri on January 06, 2022,” the police complaint against Surya and others had stated.

The news of the death of the farmer in 2022 which was investigated and closed has been falsely projected as a recent death to foment trouble among farmers, it has been alleged.

“My complaint is to take appropriate legal action against BJP MP Tejasvi Surya who posted fake news on his ‘X’ account @tejasvi_surya without verifying the authenticity of the above news and the editors of Kannada Dunia E-Paper and Kannada News E-Paper who spread the fake news,” stated the complaint from the social media monitoring unit of the Haveri police.

Surya has been at the forefront of a purported BJP campaign in Karnataka to suggest that claims over land identified as Waqf properties are part of a ‘land jihad’ being perpetrated by Muslims with the support of the ruling Congress.

The news of the alleged death of a farmer who received a notice over Waqf land in Haveri came at a time on November 7 when Jagadambika Pal, a BJP MP who is the chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf Amendment Bill, was in nearby Hubbali to hear grievances of farmers who claimed to have received notices for being in occupation of Waqf land.

The Congress government in Karnataka has accused the Opposition BJP of attempting to create communal unrest by enacting a drama around civil land disputes in the state.