Case against journo for ‘disrupting harmony’

BENGALURU: Seshadripuram police registered a case against the consulting editor of a private Hindi news channel, following a complaint from a Karnataka Minority Development Corporation (KMDC) official. The FIR was filed on Monday by Shiva Kumar S, officer at KMDC. In the FIR, the complainant said that in a news programme, the journalist allegedly asserted that subsidies were being provided exclusively to minorities in Karnataka, and not to Hindus.

In the complaint, Kumar accused the scribe of disrupting communal harmony while airing the show, where the latter discussed the state government’s commercial vehicle subsidy scheme. The scheme offers subsidies to members of the minority community for purchasing commercial vehicles. Shekhar HT, DCP (Central), said an FIR was registered and questioning would be done.

The journalist was booked under various provisions of the IPC for allegedly promoting enmity between groups. After the show aired on September 11, Karnataka IT/BT Minister Priyank Kharge took to social media platform X, and criticized the show as “deliberate and malicious”. Kharge also posted about it on X, mentioning that the government would take necessary legal action.