SM Krishna demands withdrawal of FIR against Vishweshwar Bhat

Bengaluru: Former Chief Minister and senior BJP leader S.M. Krishna on Wednesday urged Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy to withdraw the FIR filed against a Kannada editor over an article criticizing the Nikhil Kumaraswamy.

In a press statement released by Krishna with this regard, he said: “the FIR against Vishweshwar Bhat should be withdrawn as it amounts to an abuse of power and interference in the freedom of the press.”

He further added, “I don’t understand the need for a Chief Minister to make his crony file a complaint and order the police to book a case against the editor of a leading Kannada daily instead of refuting the news story and clarifying what actually transpired between his son (Nikhil) and his father (Gowda) on the phone,”

The FIR was booked on Monday after Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) General Secretary Pradeep Kumar filed a complaint at a police station against Bhat for reporting on May 25 that Nikhil blamed former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda for his defeat in the Lok Sabha election.

Of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, a resurgent BJP won 25 while the JD-S and Congress won only one each to retain Bangalore Rural and Hassan, where Nikhil’s cousin brother Prajwal Revanna defeated BJP’s A Manju.