FIR against Kannada daily editor for report on ‘drunk’ son of Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy

Report in Vishwavani had claimed that Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the CM's son, got into a drunken argument with grandfather Deve Gowda after his poll loss.

File photo of Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy with his son Nikhil. | Facebook | Nikhil Gowda

Bengaluru: The Karnataka police has filed an FIR against the editor-in-chief of a Kannada daily for publishing a report that claimed Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the son of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, got into a drunken altercation with his grandfather, former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda.

The FIR has been lodged against Vishweshwar Bhat, the editor-in-chief of Vishwavani, based on a complaint filed by the legal cell of the ruling Janata Dal (Secular), which says that the report was defamatory.

The report, published on 25 May, claimed that Nikhil — upset over his election defeat to Independent Sumalatha, widow of Congress minister M.H. Ambareesh, in Mandya — stormed into Deve Gowda’s residence in Bengaluru’s Padmanabhanagar and verbally abused the former prime minister for causing him huge embarrassment as he had lost to a woman.

The report claimed that Nikhil was under the influence of alcohol at the time.

The JD(S) has complained that there is “malicious intent” in the article, which is “completely false and baseless”.

“Not only has Bhat been targeting Kumaraswamy’s family for some time now, he has also hurt the image of Nikhil who is a Kannada film superstar with a mass following,” said Pradeep Kumar S.P., a lawyer with the JD(S) legal cell. “Articles such as these would only damage his reputation and we intend to bring a stop to such reportage.”

Vishweshwar Bhat, however, told ThePrint that it was a source-based report, which is normal practice in journalism. “I have not committed any crime. If I had any intention of maligning or defaming Kumaraswamy and his son, why wait until the results of the elections were declared. We could have run stories during the campaign itself,” Bhat said.

“I have never indulged in character assassination and moreover our paper is not a tabloid. We are a 61-year-old well-known paper and have always been respectful of the CM and his office.”

Published with malicious intent: JD(S)

In its complaint, the JD(S) has claimed that the report is not only based on misinformation but it was also allegedly used to “extort money and damage Nikhil’s career”.

Kumar, the JD(S) lawyer, told The Print that if the editor is not arrested in the next 48 hours, there would be protests outside the Seshadripuram police station in Bengaluru where the complaint has been lodged.

Soon after the report was published, the chief minister had taken to Twitter to say that it had caused him a lot of pain as a father.

“The story that has come out in a leading Kannada daily is fictitious and untrue. It is nothing but character assassination of my son and that has brought a lot of pain to me as a father,” Kumaraswamy tweeted. The same has been conveyed to the editor of the paper. My humble request is that the media should refrain from propagating such false stories.”

Bhat, however, said the sections that have been invoked in the FIR, which include criminal intent, forgery and cheating amongst others, “clearly showed the desperation of the Kumaraswamy family”.

“One of the IPC sections, that relating to forgery, is a non-bailable offence that attracts seven years in jail. What crime have I committed for that to be added?” Bhat asked. “These are dangerous times for the media. Why have they not mentioned that subsequently, we published Kumaraswamy and Nikhil’s versions verbatim?”

Chief minister’s run-ins with the media

This is not the first time that Kumaraswamy has had a run-in with the media. On 19 May, Kumaraswamy threatened to bring in a law to “control irresponsible reporting” in the media, particularly TV channels.

In April, while he was campaigning for his son Nikhil, Kumaraswamy said television channels were running negative stories against his son and his governance. “I am not looking to seek any favours from these media houses,” an angry chief minister had then said.

In November last year, the chief minister declared that he would not address the local press as he felt that a certain section of media was running a “visible campaign” against him. “They are twisting every single statement of mine and using it for their vested interests,” Kumaraswamy had then said.