Court not platform for politics: Karnataka High Court to State on Tejasvi Surya plea to quash FIR

The Karnataka High Court Thursday reserved its verdict on a petition filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Tejasvi Surya seeking quashing of the First Information Report (FIR) registered against him in an alleged case of spreading fake news regarding the suicide of a farmer in Haveri district in the Sate..Justice M Nagaprasanna also remarked orally that parties must not politicise the issue. The judge further said that a courtroom was not a platform to politicise issues."A life is lost. A farmer's son commits suicide due to alleged debts or whatever. And all of you are playing politics over it. Those things are being fought elsewhere. Let us not politicise it here. A court is not the platform for your politics," the High Court said..The judge made the comments after the Karnataka government opposed Surya's quashing plea and claimed that the BJP MP had deliberately made a post on social media to suggest that the Congress government in the State was responsible for the farmer's death..On November 8 this year, Surya had posted on his X handle that a farmer in the State had committed suicide after his land was taken over by the Waqf board."A farmer in Haveri commits suicide after finding his land taken over by Waqf! In their haste to appease minorities, CM Siddaramaiah and Minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan have unleashed catastrophic effects in Karnataka that are becoming impossible to contain with every passing day," his post read. He had also posted links to a news story from a local portal that made such claim.The police subsequently issued a clarification saying the deceased had committed suicide due to mounting debts. Surya was then booked Haveri Cybercrime, Economic and Narcotic Offences Police, for spreading fake news under Section 353(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS)..On Thursday, Surya's counsel, Senior Advocate Aruna Shyam told the Court that the BJP MP had immediately deleted his tweet after its contents were disputed and that he had had no intention to create any unrest.The State argued that Surya's tweet gave an impression that the present dispensation had unleashed this kind of act that had resulted in the deceased's suicide. The State further said that it was Surya who was playing politics and not them..The High Court then reserved its orders on Surya's plea and said it will only examine whether the ingredients of section 353(2) of the BNS were met or not..On November 14, the High Court had temporarily stayed the FIR against Surya after the BJP MP filed the plea seeking quashing of the FIR registered against him by the Haveri police following his post on social media platform X.