K'taka HC refuses to quash FIR against Rahul Gandhi, others over KGF song copyright
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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Broken relationships don't automatically amount to abetment of suicide: SC
New Delhi (PTI): Broken relationships, while emotionally distressing, do not automatically amount to abetment of suicide in the absence of intention leading to the criminal offence, the Supreme Court on Friday said.
The observations came from a bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Ujjal Bhuyan in a judgement, which overturned the conviction of one Kamaruddin Dastagir Sanadi by the Karnataka High Court for the offences of cheating and abetment of suicide under the IPC.
"This is a case of a broken relationship, not criminal conduct," the judgment said.
Sanadi was initially charged under Sections 417 (cheating), 306 (abetment of suicide), and 376 (rape) of the IPC.
While the trial court acquitted him of all the charges, the Karnataka High Court, on the state's appeal, convicted him of cheating and abetment of suicide, sentencing him to five years imprisonment and imposing Rs 25,000 in fine.
According to the FIR registered at the mother's instance, her 21-year-old daughter was in love with the accused for the past eight years and died by suicide in August, 2007, after he refused to keep his promise to marry.
Writing a 17-page judgement, Justice Mithal analysed the two dying declarations of the woman and noted that neither was there any allegation of a physical relationship between the couple nor there was any intentional act leading to the suicide.
The judgement therefore underlined broken relationships were emotionally distressing, but did not automatically amount to criminal offences.
"Even in cases where the victim dies by suicide, which may be as a result of cruelty meted out to her, the courts have always held that discord and differences in domestic life are quite common in society and that the commission of such an offence largely depends upon the mental state of the victim," said the apex court.
The court further said, "Surely, until and unless some guilty intention on the part of the accused is established, it is ordinarily not possible to convict him for an offence under Section 306 IPC.”
The judgement said there was no evidence to suggest that the man instigated or provoked the woman to die by suicide and underscored a mere refusal to marry, even after a long relationship, did not constitute abetment.
