Karnataka HC tells BJP MLC to apologise for saying deputy commissioner ‘may have come from Pakistan'
The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed Bharatiya Janata Party MLC N Ravi Kumar to tender a personal apology to Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner Fouzia Taranum for saying that she 'may have come from Pakistan', Bar and Bench reported.
Taranum is a 2015 cadre Indian Administrative Service officer.
Justice Suraj Govindaraj verbally directed Kumar to apologise to Taranum for his statements and postponed the hearing on his petition challenging the first information report against him to June 6, The Hindu reported.
'Make your apologies to the lady in question, make her accept the apology, place it on record, we will consider then,' Bar and Bench quoted Govindaraj as having said.
The court also said that Kumar should have learned from the recent criticism faced by BJP leader Vijay Shah for his communal remarks purportedly targeting Colonel Sofiya Qureshi.
Shah had on May 13 said that those who had widowed the daughters of India were taught a lesson by Prime Minister Narendra Modi 'by sending the sister from their own community'. The BJP leader repeated the remark immediately after saying it the first time.
While he did not name a person, Opposition parties had alleged that the minister was alluding to Qureshi, one of the official spokespersons during the foreign ministry and defence ministry's media briefings relating to Operation Sindoor.
In the current matter, Kumar, who is the the chief whip of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, made the comment about Taranum on May 24 at a rally organised by the Hindutva Party in Kalaburagi against the alleged mistreatment of BJP MLC Chalavadi Narayanaswamy in Chittapur.
On May 21, Congress workers had reportedly blockaded a government guest house and did not allow Narayanaswamy to come out. This came after he allegedly likened Priyank Kharge, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge's son and Karnataka minister, to a 'dog'.
Speaking at a rally on May 24, Kumar had claimed that the deputy commissioner's office in Kalaburagi had lost its independence. Taranum only listened to what the Congress said, he alleged.
'I do not know whether she comes from Pakistan or is an IAS officer here,' The Indian Express quoted Kumar as having said. 'Listening to your applause, I think she might have come from Pakistan.'
On Monday, the Karnataka Police filed a first information report against Kumar for his statements.
The BJP MLC was booked under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to assertions prejudicial to national integration, threat of injury to a public servant, acts intended to outrage religious feelings, uttering words with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings, criminal intimidation and statements that could lead to public mischief.
At the hearing on Thursday, Kumar's lawyer told the court that he had already apologised for his remarks and requested interim protection from arrest.
The counsel for the state government, on the other hand, assured the court that Kumar would not be arrested if he cooperated with the investigation, Bar and Bench reported.
The court instructed the state government to provide relevant video footage of the incident and directed Kumar's lawyer to submit an affidavit formally recording his apology.
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