A private defamation complaint against Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah on his comment about a Lingayat chief minister ahead of the Assembly election in the state has been dismissed by an Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court. According to a PTI report, the Special Court which exclusively deals with criminal cases against elected former and sitting MPs/MLAs on Tuesday dismissed the complaint filed for the alleged offences under Sections 499 (defamation) and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code.
The complaint was lodged by Shankar Shet and Mallaiah Hiremath who alleged that Siddaramaiah had defamed the Lingayat community with his answer to a question by a journalist during the Assembly election. The Congress leader was asked if his party would make Lingayat the Chief Minister if it came to power.
Siddaramaiah allegedly replied that then-incumbent CM Basavaraj Bommai was a Lingayat who had indulged in corruption and spoilt the state.
“There’s already a Lingayat CM (B S Bommai). He is the root of all corruption in the state,” Siddaramaiah had said when asked about the BJP’s stance that a Lingayat should be the next CM, according to the Times of India.
According to TOI, the BJP stated that it was an attempt to "demonise" the entire Lingayat community, even though Siddaramaiah clarified that the statement was about the current CM.
To this, the former CM Bommai said that the Brahmin community had been ridiculed in the past.
"It is not right for a former CM to make a statement like this. He has said that the entire Lingayat community is corrupt. The Brahmin community had been ridiculed in the past. Earlier, he had tried to break the Lingayat-Veerashaiva community when he was chief minister.,” CM Bommai said, reported TOI.
Siddaramaiah later lashed out at the BJP for “misinterpreting his statement” and said that his comments were only about Bommai but it was deliberately being misinterpreted to imply the entire community of Lingayat.