A complaint has been filed in a Mandya court against Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar in connection with a recent video in which he was allegedly seen throwing currency notes at people during a roadshow in the district, police said.
“We haven’t registered a first information report (FIR) yet. A non-cognisable offence has been taken up and the matter will be presented before the court seeking its direction,” Mandya superintendent of police (SP) Yathish N said.
The alleged offence took place during the party’s ‘Praja Dhwani Yatra’ in the Srirangapatna assembly segment in Mandya on Tuesday, a day before the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the election schedule – Karnataka will vote on May 10 – and the model code of conduct kicked in.
Since the code of conduct was not in force on Tuesday, DK Shivakumar’s alleged actions were interpreted by the police as a non-cognisable offence that cannot be investigated by the police on its own without a court order.
To be sure, the Mandya Congress has denied that Shivakumar threw currency notes at the public at the roadshow and insisted that he was making payments to artists for their performance at a cultural event. HT cannot verify the authenticity of the video clip.
The video clip set off a huge political row when it emerged on social media with chief minister Basavaraj Bommai in the lead role. “By throwing notes, he (Shivakumar) and his party think that the people of Karnataka are beggars. The same people will teach the Congress party a lesson in the upcoming assembly elections,” Bommai said.
The chief minister has accused the state Congress chief of luring Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs by offering them tickets in constituencies where the party is yet to announce its candidates.
The ruling BJP hopes to win back the only southern state it is in power in, but a string of corruption allegations and incidents of infighting involving supporters of former chief minister YS Yediyurappa and Bommai have hurt the party in recent months.