Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Union minister DV Sadananda Gowda on Sunday said that he has lodged a police complaint in Bengaluru in connection with a video clip that purportedly features him.
In his complaint, which was filed by a person named Thamme Gowda S on behalf of the BJP leader, Gowda alleged that the “fake, fabricated, concocted” video was “politically motivated”. Gowda added that it was created to tarnish his image.
“Malefactors, who are upset by my rise on the political front, have brought out a fake, lewd video of mine for my fall,” Gowda said in a tweet and posted a copy of the police complaint. “The video has become viral on social media, which pains me.”
The purported clip shows a person who appears to be Gowda and an unidentified woman on a video call, according to the Hindustan Times.
In a separate tweet on Sunday, Gowda had alleged that the video was a morphed one and denied that the person who seen in it was him.
“...It’s created to malign my impeccable image by my adversaries with vested interest,” he had said.
The former Union minister also referred to an injunction order of a court that, he claimed, would make anyone “forwarding/uploading the content” liable for punishment.
In July, a civil and sessions court in Bengaluru had restrained 70 print, electronic and social media platforms from publishing or circulating “false, baseless and reckless” content against him, according to The Hindu.
The injunction was ordered after Gowda filed a complaint alleging that people with politically motivated vested interests were trying to tarnish his image in order to get him removed from the Union Cabinet. However, it is not clear if he mentioned the same injunction order in his tweet on Sunday.
Gowda was dropped from the Union Cabinet in a reshuffle in July.
In March, six Karnataka MLAs – all of whom had defected to the BJP from the Janata Dal (Secular) – had also moved a court in Bengaluru seeking injunction orders against newspapers and TV channels from publishing anything defamatory against them, according to the Deccan Herald.
They moved the court days after BJP’s Ramesh Jarkiholi resigned from the post of Karnataka water resources minister after he was accused of sexually harassing a woman in return for a government job.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!