Assembly directs cops to arrest journalists Belagere, Raj

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Legislative Assembly, today, directed the Home Department to arrest Bengaluru-based tabloid journalists Ravi Belagere and Anil Raj following a House resolution sentencing them to one-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 10,000 for breach of privilege. The Assembly Secretariat sent a letter to the Home department on Tuesday night, after the Legislative Assembly unanimously rejected a petition filed by the two editors seeking reconsideration of the imprisonment and fine. The Assembly in June this year had passed a resolution accepting recommendations of the Privileges Committee of the House sentencing ‘Hai Bangalore’ editor Ravi Belagere and ‘Yelahanka Voice’ editor Anil Raj to one-year imprisonment and a fine of Rs. 10,000 each. The counsel of the two editors had filed a review petition before Speaker K.B. Koliwad questioning the ruling of the Privileges Committee. Yesterday, Koliwad placed the review petition before the Assembly. “The House is supreme. It was the House which took a decision against the two editors. Hence, the review petition is being placed before the House,” Koliwad said. The Assembly unanimously rejected the review petition by a voice vote. The editors had challenged the legality of the resolution in the High Court of Karnataka, but later withdrew the same. In 2014, Ranebennur MLA K.B. Koliwad (now the Speaker) had petitioned the Privileges Committee taking offence to “defamatory articles” against him in ‘Hai Bangalore’. In another instance, in 2017, Yelahanka MLA S.R. Vishwanath approached the Privileges Committee taking offence to articles appearing in a local tabloid ‘Yelahanka Voice’. The committee found the articles defamatory and amounted to breach of privilege. A majority of the members who spoke on the review petition said no mercy should be shown on the two editors. Vishwanath said “defamatory articles appeared against me even after the House passed the sentence”. G.H. Srinivas (Congress) suggested that a special law should be enacted exclusively to try journalists who write defamatory articles. Ashok M. Pattan (Congress) said the punishment against the two editors should be doubled for filing the review petition. “Many a journalists indulge in blackmail. No mercy should be shown against them,” he said. S. Suresh Kumar (BJP) and YSV Datta felt that “unfortunately” the articles did not amount to breach of privilege as they were outside the purview of the Assembly.