Karnataka HC raps police for arrest of Hindutva leader over FB post on Kunal Kamra event cancellation

The Karnataka High Court on Friday pulled up the Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru Police over the arrest of a Hindutva leader for his Facebook post celebrating the cancellation of stand up comedian Kunal Kamra's event in the city [Mohan Gowda v. State of Karnataka]. .Justice M Nagaprasanna observed that the police initiated the case based on imaginary concerns of disharmony over the social media post."The police constable of the Whitefield Police Station gets concerned about the imaginary disharmony overnight and alleges such disharmony to be because of the post of the petitioner calling it a victory for Hindu unity," the judge said.Pertinently, the Court said that the Whitefield police was following a pattern of sending notices to accused persons asking them to appear before the police for questioning and then arresting them before they comply with deadline mentioned in the notice. "The Whitefield Police Station appears to have been violating the law time and again as this Court has repeatedly coming across this violation of law from this Police Station. A notice indicating the later date of appearance, appears to have been used to take the petitioner into custody 3 days prior to the fixed date itself. This has been the modus operandi of the policeman who man the Whitefield Police Station," the Court said..Justice Nagaprasanna had earlier this week slammed the Whitefield police in a separate case in which it had resorted to the same modus operandi. In that case, the judge had declared the arrest of a man to be illegal and imposed costs of ₹3 lakh on the police..Karnataka High Court slams ‘police raj’, imposes ₹3 lakh costs on Whitefield police for illegal arrest.In the present case, the police had arrested the petitioner, Mohan Gowda of Udupi, a member of the 'Hindu Rashtra Samanvaya Samithi'. Gowda had earlier made a representation to the Whitefield police station stating that Kunal Kamra's comedy show could cause communal disharmony. The show was scheduled to be held at Uru, located within the Whitefield Police Station limits. It was cancelled after the representation by Gowda, who then posted on Facebook claiming it to be a victory for Hindu unity. The Whitefield Police Station then registered a first information report (FIR) for offences under Sections 217 (false information with intent to cause public servant to use his lawful power to the injury of another person) and 353 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Bharatiya Nayaya Sanhita (BNS). A notice was sent to Gowda under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) on August 5 asking him to appear before the police within 3 days.Section 35(3) requires the police to issue a formal notice of appearance to an accused person instead of arresting them immediately for crimes carrying a punishment of up to 7 years.The police later travelled to Udupi to take Gowda into custody before the expiry of the 3-day period mentioned in the notice.Gowda then approached the High Court..The Court proceeded to summon the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), the Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) and the police constable involved in the arrest to be present before the Court on the next date of hearing on August 29. It warned that if the DCP did not appear, the Commissioner would be summoned."In the event the DCP would not be present, this Court would be constrained to summon the Commissioner to set his house in order," the order said..Advocate Girish Bharadwaj appeared for Gowda. State Public Prosecutor BN Jagadeesha appeared for the State..[Read Order]