The Bengaluru police sent notices to BJP State President B.Y. Vijayendra, National Chief BJP J.P. Nadda, and Head of IT Cell Amit Malviya, stating that they must appear before the investigating officer within seven days for questioning regarding a controversial hate post on X made by the party’s state unit.
The High Grounds police in Bengaluru filed an FIR and sent letters via the State BJP office in response to a complaint that was filed by Karnataka Congress on Sunday.
“For the purpose of investigation of the said case, you are hereby directed to appear before the undersigned investigation officer at 11 am at High grounds police station within seven days of receipt of this notice,” the summons read.
A case was registered against Nadda, Amit Malviya and state president B Y Vijayendra, under section 125 (Promoting or attempting to promote on ground of religion, race, caste, community or language, feeling of enmity or hatred, between different classes of the citizens of India) of Representation of People Act and 505 (2) (Statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will between classes) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
On May 5, the police sent a letter to the social networking site X requesting that it remove the animated video that the BJP state unit had uploaded.
This came after the Election Commission wrote a letter to the police urging to take action.
An animated video depicting the Congress party favouring Muslims for reservations at the expense of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes was included in the viral post.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other prominent BJP figures have already brought up this as a major topic in the last few days of their electoral campaign.
Additionally, the police went to the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court and requested that the accused remove the posts from their social media accounts and file an objection. The court scheduled a hearing for this coming Thursday.
Polling in Karnataka was completed on Tuesday in the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections.
