Bengaluru, June 28: The High Court of Karnataka has refused to quash the FIR against Congress party leaders Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh and Supriya Shrinate for the alleged copyright violation of music from the hit film KGF Chapter-2.
The single judge bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna pronounced the judgment on Wednesday, dismissing the petition filed by the three Congress leaders.
M Naveen Kumar of MRT Music, a sister concern of Lahari Music, had filed the complaint at Yeshwantpur police station in Bengaluru alleging that the music from the film, to which it has the copyright, was used by the Congress party in a promotional video of 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'.
The HC in its order dismissing the petition said, "The petitioners appear to have tampered with source code without permission, which would undoubtedly amount to infringement of the copyright of the company. The petitioners seem to have taken the copyright of the company for granted. Therefore prima facie all these as a matter of evidence has to be trashed out in an investigation."
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The FIR was registered under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 403 (Dishonest misappropriation of property) 465 (forgery) r/w Section 34 (criminal act with common intent) of Indian Penal Code, Section 33 of Copyright Act and Section 66 of Information Technology Act.
On behalf of the Congress leaders, it was argued that the issue was related to copyright infringement but a criminal complaint was filed and immediately an FIR was registered by the police. "Copyright is statutory right. In the absence of a cognisable offence (the) FIR is bad in law," AS Ponnanna, the counsel for the party leaders had argued.
A related suit in a commercial court was filed leading to the order to freeze the social media accounts of the Congress party. The HC set it aside after an undertaking by the party to remove the offending videos from its social media handles.
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Dhar (MP) (PTI): A 25-year-old woman and her lover have been arrested in the district for allegedly conspiring to kill her husband by hiring a contract killer, police said on Thursday.
The case was solved within 36 hours of the murder though the woman initially tried to mislead the police by claiming that robbers killed her husband, an official said.
Dev Krishna Purohit (28) was stabbed to death on the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday at his house in Gondikheda Charan village, about 60 km from here.
Superintendent of Police Mayank Awasthi told reporters that accused Priyanka Purohit (25) was married to Dev Krishna when she was around 15 years old. Priyanka moved to her matrimonial home after attaining adulthood but was unwilling to live with her husband, leading to frequent disputes between them.
During investigation, it emerged that she was in a relationship with Kamlesh (32), the SP said.
The duo allegedly hatched a plan to kill Dev Krishna and hired a man identified as Surendra for Rs 1 lakh do the job, he said
After Dev Krishna was killed, Priyanka told police that unidentified persons broke into the house, attacked her husband with a sharp weapon while holding her captive in another room, and fled with valuables.
But the inconsistencies in her statements raised suspicion, and eventually she confessed to hatching the murder conspiracy, the SP said.
While she and Kamlesh were arrested, police are looking for the contract killer, the official added.
