BENGALURU: On the day six ministers in the BS Yediyurappa cabinet secured a court injunction restraining media from airing or publishing anything defamatory about them, the state’s home and law minister Basavaraj Bommai talked of attempts to destabilise the state, politically.
He said the police suspect some forces of trying to blackmail elected representatives after honey-trapping them with the aim to create political instability in the state. He said their suspicion stems from the fact that even after five days of the Ramesh Jarkiholi CD case becoming public, neither the woman has come forward nor the complainant has disclosed anything.
“Such long delays either by the woman or complainant can only mean one thing: A bigger political conspiracy could be at play to create political instability in the state,” he said.
Meanwhile, political circles are agog with speculation that some more ministers and MLAs might be moving court on Monday to gain similar restraint orders against the media.
Ministers B Basavaraj, K Sudhakar, BC Patil, Shivaram Hebbar, ST Somashekar and KC Narayana Gowda on Friday had moved court after water resources minister Ramesh Jarkiholi resigned after a CD was leaked to the media. After hearing their plea, the court on Saturday restrained 67 media outfits from airing or publishing any defamatory content about the six ministers.
However, the ex-parte order passed by additional city civil and sessions judge, Mayo Hall unit, clarified that media houses can publish authenticated and true news after verification without making defamatory remarks about the six ministers.
These six ministers were part of 17 rebel MLAs who tendered their resignation from the House in July 2019.They sought injunction order follows social activist Dinesh Kallahalli claiming he was in possession of more CDs about a minister and two key personalities.
“Ex-CM Kumaraswamy has spoken about a Rs 5-crore deal and some others that sex CDs of 19 MLAs will be released in the next couple of days. We have directed police to probe all these angles,” Bommai said.