6 K’taka Ministers Move Seeking Restraint on Defamatory Content

Following the resignation of Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jharkiholi after a CD was leaked, six Karnataka Cabinet ministers moved a city civil court to restrain the media from airing/printing/publishing any defamatory content against them.

According to media reports, pleas requesting the court to pass restraint orders have been filed by some individuals on behalf of these ministers. However, some of these ministers expressed their ignorance about the latest development.

However, a cause list has been up on the website of a city civil court mentioning the case and names of six Cabinet ministers — Shivaram Hebbar, BC Patil, HT Somashekhar, K Sudhakar, Narayan Gowda and Byrathi Basavaraj. All the six ministers had defected to the BJP from the Congress and JDS in July 2019 leading to the fall of the previous coalition government. All of them were disqualified and won by-elections held in December 2019 and were subsequently made Cabinet ministers. An additional civil magistrate will take up the matters for orders on Saturday.

A social activist had filed a complaint against Jarkiholi alleging the former minister of sexually harassing a woman ‘job aspirant’.