Police complaint against Amit Shah for ‘promoting enmity’

Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah addresses a public meeting ahead of Karnataka Assembly polls, in Bagalkot. File pic/PTI

Congress leaders on Thursday complained to the police against Union Home Minister Amit Shah for his alleged statement that if their party won the upcoming elections, then Karnataka would be "afflicted with riots", and claimed he said it with the clear intent of disrupting the communal harmony in the state.

The complaint was made by AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala, state Congress president D K Shivakumar and former Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara to the Station House Officer, High Grounds police station here.

According to the complaint, Shah's statements were designed to incite any class or community of persons to commit any offence against any other class or community, and were thereby punishable under Section 505 of the IPC (promoting enmity) and other provisions of the IPC.

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The statements also indirectly threaten and try to mislead electors into voting for a particular political party and candidate, thereby being punishable under Section 123 of the Representation of People's Act, 1951, the Congress' complaint said.

It requested the police that an "urgent and immediate" FIR be lodged against Shah and others for the "offences".

Addressing a gathering at Vijayapura, Shah made flagrantly false statements aimed at tarnishing the image of the Congress by levelling false and unfounded
allegations, with a clear objective of trying to create an atmosphere of communal disharmony amongst the gathered crowd and the individuals viewing it on
other media platforms.

The complaint alleged that Shah knowingly raised several false and communal allegations against the Congress and its senior leaders with the clear intent of disrupting the communal harmony maintained in the entire state. The complainants highlighted a few of his alleged "false, malicious and dangerous" claims.

25 April
Day Amit Shah made the statements

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