Police registers FIR against HDK, son on SIT Lokayukta’s complaint

Bengaluru: Karnataka Police registered an FIR against Union Minister for Heavy Industries and Steel, H.D. Kumaraswamy, on Tuesday as per the directions of a court. The petition in this regard was submitted by Lokayukta ADGP and Special Investigation Team (SIT) Chief M. Chandrashekar, in which he has accused Kumaraswamy of defaming and threatening him and his family.

Sanjaynagar police in Bengaluru have registered the FIR against Kumaraswamy. The FIR is registered under Section 224 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023. The police have named Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy and NDA candidate for Channapatna seat as the second accused in the case.

C.B. Suresh Babu, the JD(S) party floor leader in the Legislative Assembly is named as the third accused in the case. Chandrashekar had filed a complaint against Kumaraswamy with Sanjaynagar police alleging that the leaders threatened him and his family.

The police had taken a non-cognisable miscellaneous case. Chandrashekar had approached the court demanding registration of an FIR against Kumaraswamy.

The development is likely to trigger a tussle between Kumaraswamy and Chandrashekar.

Chandrashekar, in his complaint to the court had alleged that he has been heading the SIT team probing a case of illegal mining in 2014 - case no. 16/2014 and after getting additional evidence in the case, the investigating team had sought sanction of prosecution from the Governor recently.

In response to this, HD Kumaraswamy held a press conference on September 28 and 29 - where the minister made malicious accusations, threatening the IPS officer and his family members.

The IPS officer, in his complaint to the court, alleged that Kumaraswamy orally threatened him that he would be shunted to another state cadre and also made ill-intended allegations against his family members.

Kumaraswamy also allegedly accused Chandrashekar of fabricating documents from the Bowring Hospital for continuing to serve as a Karnataka cadre officer. The minister also made false allegations of the IPS officer accepting bribes.

Further to that, on September 29, Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy also held a press conference hurling false and malicious accusations against Chandrashekar.

Suresh Babu also spoke ill of the IPS officer and went on to lodge a complaint against Chandrashekar with the Chief Secretary.

They had also maligned his reputation with all these frivolous allegations on social media, Chandrashekar mentioned in his complaint.

Kumaraswamy had lashed out at Chandrashekar for seeking permission to question the Raj Bhavan staff over the issue of information leak on a confidential file. He had called Chandrashekar a criminal and accused him of being involved in extortion.

In reply to the charges, Chandrashekar wrote a letter to his staff and refuted all allegations calling it false and malicious. Chandrashekar concluded his letter by quoting playwright George Bernard Shaw’s famous lines, “Never wrestle with a pig because you’ll both get dirty, and the pig likes it.”

Earlier, defending Chandrashekar, Home Minister G. Parameshwara had stated, “The police officers will have a mandate of investigation and the SIT has been formed lawfully. They will carry out their duties. If the police work is obstructed, they will have their own procedures to deal with it and they will initiate those steps.”