BJP Leaders JP Nadda, Amit Malviya Summoned By Bengaluru Police Over Controversial Post

New Delhi: Bengaluru Police on Thursday summoned BJP leader JP Nadda and the party’s IT cell head Amit Malviya over an alleged controversial post shared on ‘X’ by the party’s state unit. 

A first information report (FIR) had been registered with the High Grounds Police station in Bengaluru in connection with the video targeting Muslims, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The FIR mentions the two leaders after which the investigating officer has issued the summons giving them a week to appear. 

The contentious post featured a video alleging that the Congress prioritises reservation for Muslims over Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes. These allegations have been made by numerous prominent BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, over recent days during Lok Sabha elections campaigns. 

Earlier, the Karnataka chief electoral officer had ordered to remove the purported posts. But the BJP failed to do so after which the Election Commission sent a notice to ‘X’ to take it down. 

In its notice to ‘X’ citing the reason that the post violated the legal framework, the Election commission said, “The notice stated that an FIR has already been registered in the matter. The Cyber Crime, Karnataka through Cyber Crime Division, Bengaluru has directed X on May 5 to take down the objectionable post as per Section 79 (3) (b) of IT Act and rule 3 (1)(d) of IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rule 2021, but the post has not been taken down,” reported ANI. 

The microblogging site now displays an error notice stating that the post "page doesn't exist".