After BJP levelled corruption allegations against the current Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah, the CM has sent a legal notice to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and BJP’s chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa. He demanded an apology from them or asked them to be ready to face a 100 crore defamation suit.
What did Narendra Modi say?
The seven-page legal notice said that Narendra Modi had made several “defamatory and untrue statements” in his speeches during the election campaign. It referred to the Navakarntaka Parivarthana Yatra held by the BJP on February 5.
Modi said, “Karnataka ki Congress Sarkar 10% ki sarkar hai.” He further said that Congress government talked about the ease of doing business when the only did “ease of doing murders”. In another instance, the notice mentioned that Modi said, “Yahaan scams aur mafia ka nanga naach chal raha hain”.
Notice says
The notice further claimed the BJP published several advertisements in electronic and print media talking about “Sidda Sarkara” and spreading a lot of false information and “casting aspersions on the character and integrity of my client.”
“These allegations are completely false, fabricated and do not have an iota of truth and the same have been made with a malicious intent to defame my client [Siddaramaiah] and destroy his reputation in the eyes of the public at large,” the notice read.
The notice then lists the sections of the IPC under which the leaders have allegedly committed offences: “You (BJP leaders) have jointly and severally committed libel and offences punishable under Sections 499, 500, 501 and 502 of the Indian Penal Code. Therefore, you are called upon to cease and desist from making such statements forthwith and give an unconditional public apology immediately through electronic, print and social media in which statements and advertisements have appeared,” reported The News Minute.
“In the event you fail to do so, please note that you have rendered yourself liable to civil and criminal action and payment of exemplary damages of Rs 100,00,00,000 (Rupees One Hundred Crores Only) and cost of this notice being Rs 1,00,000 (Rupees One Lakh Only) and my client shall initiate appropriate legal proceedings as per provisions of the law of the land at your cost and consequences thereof,” it adds.
This notice comes at a point where in a similar fashion BJP approached the Karnataka High court as Congress called BS Yeddyurappa a “jailbird”.