Congress wants BJP candidate disqualified
New Delhi, May 11 : The Congress on Friday approached the Election Commission demanding the arrest and disqualification of BJP candidate B. Sriramulu in the Karnataka Assembly polls over a bribery allegation.
On Thursday, the last day of campaigning for the May 12 elections, a video released showed Sriramulu had bribed former Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan seeking an order favouring a mining company owned by G. Janardhan Reddy.
The Congress on Friday also demanded that a First Information Report (FIR) be registered against all those involved in the corrupt deal with the judiciary, including Sriramulu.
Sriramulu is contesting against Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah from Badami constituency and from Molakalmuru as well.
A delegation of Congress leaders, including Motilal Vora, Kapil Sibal, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala, R.P.N. Singh and P.L. Punia, met Chief Election Commissioner Om Prakash Rawat and submitted a memorandum.
They said the evidence, released by the Kannada media, was "significant and shocking" and Sriramulu should be "clearly disqualified" from contesting the Karnataka polls.
They said the "incriminating evidence made for a clear-cut case for the cancellation of the candidature of Sriramulu is made out for both the seats being contested by him in the upcoming Karnataka election.
"In a 40-minute video that has been made public and broadcast widely in the regional Kannada media, it is clearly seen that the candidate Sriramulu and three other individuals (identified as G. Janardhan Reddy, Captain Reddy and Swamiji) are seen sitting with the son-in-law of a former Chief Justice of India.
"The discussions between them, as seen in the video and reported by the media, relate to the payment of money to the son-in-law to secure a favourable judgment of the Supreme Court for the Reddy brothers," it added.
Sibal said: "While this was circulating on the TV channels yesterday (Thursday), the Chief Electoral officer in Karnataka banned the showing of this particular video on TV channels in Karnataka.
"We said this ban must be lifted as this is freedom of expression... This must be part of the public discourse," he added.
Sibal said: "Sriramulu should be disqualified from contesting the election and that there should be no election in his constituency as he has been involved in bribery."
Sibal also said that the Bharatiya Janata Party was spreading hatred among voters in Karnataka by putting up promos in Rajeev Chandrasekhar channel.
"On the social media, the Congress flag is being circulated along with the Pakistani flag. This itself is the worst form of communal campaigning. We have urged the EC to take action against it," he added.
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Editors Guild welcomes Bombay HC quashing amended IT Rules on fake news
New Delhi (PTI): The Editors Guild of India on Friday welcomed the Bombay High Court verdict striking down as unconstitutional the Information Technology Amendment Rules of 2023 on the formation of fact-check units by the government.
The Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Amendment Rules sought to empower the Central government to form a Fact-Check Unit to identify "fake and misleading" information on social media platforms about its business.
The Guild had moved the Bombay High Court in June last year, challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the IT Amendment Rules of 2023.
It had raised its concerns in its statement in April last year, stating that amendments to the IT Rules will have deep adverse implications for press freedom in the country.
The Bombay High Court, while observing that the amended rules infringed the right to equality and freedom of speech, also said the rules being vague and broad could cause a "chilling effect" not only on an individual but also on social media intermediaries.
The ruling was passed by Justice A S Chandurkar who served as a 'tie-breaker judge' after a division bench in January 2024 delivered a split verdict.
