Siddaramaiah serves Rs 100 cr defamation notice to Modi, Shah

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday served a Rs 100-crore legal notice on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah and party's state unit chief B.S. Yeddyurappa for alleged defamatory speeches and advertisements against him in the media.

The BJP leaders will have to face civil and criminal action and pay damages of Rs 100-crore in the event of the BJP leaders failed to withdraw their statements and issuing an unconditional public apology, the notice added.

"The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has published several political advertisements in Kannada and English newspapers, television channels and on the social media, which are defamatory against Siddaramaiah," said lawyer and Congress Member of Legislative Council V.S. Ugrappa in the notice.

The lawsuit also termed as "maligning" Modi's speeches referring to Siddaramaiah-led government as a "seedha rupiah sarkar" (money-making government) and that the state government was talking about "ease of doing murders" while the world was talking about the ease of doing business.

It also referred to newspaper advertisements appearing since March 28 in Kannada and English, which claimed that the Congress government had turned Bengaluru into a city of garbage and destroyed its lakes, along with pictorial display of silhouettes of Siddaramaiah.

"These allegations are completely false, fabricated and do not have an iota of truth and have been made with a malicious intent to defame (Siddaramaiah) and destroy his reputation in the eyes of the public at large," said Ugrappa in the legal notice.

During public rallies in the southern state ahead of the May 12 Assembly elections, Modi on several occasions alleged that the state's Congress government worked on commissions basis and was hand in glove with the mining mafia, and was talking about ease of committing murders instead of business.

Through the statements and advertisements, the BJP leaders had committed offences punishable under Sections 499, 500, 501 and 502 (defamation and printing defamatory matter) of the Indian Penal Code, the notice said.

"You are called to cease and desist from making such statements and give an unconditional public apology immediately through electronic, print and social media in which the statements and advertisements have appeared," the lawsuit notice asserted.

The BJP leaders will have to face civil and criminal action and pay damages of Rs 100-crore in the event of the BJP leaders failed to withdraw their statements and issuing an apology, the notice added.

--IANS

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