Cong leaders ‘have not done any act that would become an offence,’ says HC

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka has quashed a criminal case against two Youth Congress leaders in connection with the ‘PAYCM’ poster issue. The Congress had targeted Chief Minister Basavaraja Bommai with posters alleging corruption against his government.

As part of it, posters with his image and ‘PAYCM’, a pun on a popular payment app, were pasted on public walls last month. The HC has quashed a case in this regard filed against Narayana Gowda JS and Ramakrishna V.

The two were charged under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the Karnataka Open Places Disfigurement Act as well as the Indian Penal Code. Narayan is an advocate and president of the Indian Youth Congress, Nelamangala.

Raakrishna is also an advocate and president of the legal cell of the Congress party in Nelamangala constituency. A case was filed against them on September 22. It was alleged that the night-beat police on duty came across three people pasting posters on public walls.

They escaped when the police tried to catch them. However, they were subsequently nabbed and questioned. The nabbed people allegedly named Narayan Gowda and Ramakrishana as the people who asked them to paste the posters.

A case was filed against them. Seaccused,unsel AS Ponnanna appearing for the accused argued that the “very registration of the crime against the petitioners is contrary to law, as the provisions do not get attracted to asought the of the petitioners.”

He, therefore, sought quashing of the entire proceedings. Justice M Nagaprasanna, while quashing the case against the two accused, said in his judgement, “The allegation against the petitioners is that they have telephonically instructed the pasting of the bills/ posters which cannot mean that they would become guilty of the provisions of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, as they have not done any act that would become an offence under the Act.”

Similarly, “if they have not done any act that would become an offence under the provisions of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the provisions of the Karnataka Open Place Disfigurement Act also cannot be laid against them, as the allegation against the petitioners admittedly is that they have telephonically instructed some other accused to lay the posters,” the HC said.