Bantwal police on Friday arrested Imtiyaz Shah, a reporter in Bantwal, with the Vartha Bharathi , a Kannada daily, on charges of “spreading false information through social media” and reporting it in the daily.
A court in Bantwal remanded him in judicial custody for 15 days after rejecting his interim bail application.
The regular bail application, which was also filed on Friday, will come up for hearing on Monday.
The reporter and “chief of Vartha Bharathi ” have been booked under Sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes) of the Indian Penal Code.
The case pertains to Mr. Shah’s posts on social media regarding police allegedly desecrating a holy book during a search operation at the house of Kalandar, murder accused, near Bantwal on September 2, and reporting the same in the daily.
Kalandar is an accused in the murder of RSS activist Sharath Madiwala and is absconding.
Photographs and video showing alleged desecration of the holy book (showing the holy book among other books scattered on the floor) went viral.
The police had denied it and said the search was conducted and videographed in the presence of two government witnesses (other department officials) and allowed the media to watch it.
Evidence with police?
Sudheer Kumar Reddy C.H., Superintendent of Police, Dakshina Kannada, said the police have evidence that the reporter planted the holy book after police concluded their search, took photographs and video and circulated them through social media. The accused reported about the same (desecration of the holy book) in the daily.
The advocate for the accused, Shivaprasad, said he would not comment on the allegations as the accused’s bail application would come up for hearing on Monday.
‘Our reporting has been objective’
While refusing to comment on the allegation against the reporter of planting the holy book, Vartha Bharati Mangaluru Bureau Chief B. Pushparaj said the newspaper was objective in its reporting as it carried the allegations of Kalandar’s family members (on desecration of the holy book) as well as the clarification of Sudheer Kumar Reddy, SP, on September 3. The newspaper on September 4 carried prominently a detailed interview of Mr. Reddy on the issue after seeing videos of the search filmed by the police.
