The Karnataka Police has summoned BJP president J.P. Nadda and party’s IT cell head Amit Malviya over a controversial video shared on X by the party’s state unit. The duo have been given a week’s time to appear.
An FIR has been filed against Nadda, Malviya and BJP state president B.Y. Vijayendra at the High Grounds Police station in Bengaluru in connection with the post. They were booked under sections of Representation of People Act and section 505 (2) (Statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code.
The Election Commission on Tuesday issued a fresh directive to the social media platform to immediately take down the animated video, saying the post was violative of the extant legal framework.
The video had targeted the Congress, accusing the grand old party of favouring Muslims over backward classes in reservation and fund allocation.
The EC had on May 5 asked X to remove the post, but the micro-blogging site refused to do so, prompting the poll panel to issue the fresh directive on Tuesday.
The Congress had approached the EC with a complaint against Vijayendra, saying the “derogatory” video could lead to law and order issues in the state.
"The act of the accused person (s) is to wantonly provoke rioting and promote enmity between different religions and is prejudicial to maintenance of harmony apart from intimidating members of SC/ST community not to vote for particular candidate and causing enmity against members of SC/ST community," the party had alleged.
