Minister seeks to move privilege motion against oppn leader

Protest and dharna disrupted legislative assembly proceedings today as Minister K J George, booked by CBI in a case of a police official's death,sought to move a privilege motion against the Opposition BJP leader and a local TV channel for making 'baseless' charges against him.
He was referring to the issue raised by opposition leader Jagadish Shettar on November 20, citing media reports of a government doctor having reportedly admitted before CBI that the post-mortem of DySP M K Ganapathy was conducted as per the government directions.'
According to the reports, the doctor had claimed that he was "pressurised" to treat the case as a suicide.

Deputy Superintendent of Police Ganapathy (51) was found hanging from a ceiling fan in a room at a lodge in Madikeri on July 7 last year, with the mystery surrounding it raising a huge controversy.
Prior to the alleged suicide, he had told a local TV channel in an interview that the then Home Minister George and two senior police officers A M Prasad and Pranab Mohanty would be responsible "if anything happens to me".
The Karnataka CID, which investigated the case after the death of Ganapathy, had given a clean chit to George and the two officers in the closure report filed before a court.

Making his preliminary submission today,George said there were earlier rulings according to which the onus of proving the "authenticity of an issue" raised in the House by referring to media reports lies on the one who raises it.

"I too have a family, friends and people who vote for me. What will they think about me? What will be my reputation with officials who work under me?," he asked.
He said a baseless charge was levelled against him and this amounts to breach of privilege as a member of this House.
Intervening, Shettar said that the issue does not come within the ambit of breach of privilege, which was objected to by ruling party members, resulting in arguments.

George accused BJP of becoming an authority that conducts trial and passes judgement. "For them court and law is not required," he said.
Shettar requested the Speaker to fix a time tomorrow or the day after for the issue.
Following this, an argument again broke out between both sides about George's alleged links to Ganapathy's death.
It also resulted in personal exchanges between Ministers M B Patil and Sharan Prakash and some BJP MLAs.
Amid noisy scenes, BJP members entered the well of the House protesting the Minister's conduct, following which the Speaker adjourned the House for 10 minutes.
When proceedings resumed, the protest continued. The Speaker then said he would hear the issue of privilege motion tomorrow.