Tejasvi Surya case: There is nothing to investigate, says Karnataka High Court

High Court of Karnataka rules no criminal proceedings against BJP's Tejasvi Surya for social media post on farmer's death.

Observing that there is no ingredient to attract penal provision against BJP’s Lok Sabha member Tejasvi Surya for his post on social media platform ‘X’ in connection with the death of a farmer in Haveri district, the High Court of Karnataka said that allowing criminal proceedings against him in such a situation would become “abuse of process of law when there is nothing to investigate.”

“The tweet is posted; tweet is clarified; and tweet is deleted. Therefore, it is ununderstandable as to how the ingredients of Section 353(2) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) are met in the case at hand,” said Justice M. Nagaprasanna while quashing the First Information Report registered against him by Haveri district police on November 7 on a suo motu complaint lodged up by the police.

Citing the apex court’s judgements, the court said the facts of the case and the contents of the complaint lodged by the police attached to the Haveri district social media monitoring cell do not become an offence under Section 353(2) of BNS.

The FIR had said Mr. Surya’s post had allegedly created enmity among groups/religions by circulating false information through social media post in connection with the death of a farmer, who had ended his life in 2022.

The court also noted that Mr Surya’s social media post was based on news reports which had put out an interview with the father of a farmer, Rudrappa, who had committed suicide in January 2022. The father, Chennappa, had told the media in November 2024 that his son had ended his life after coming to know that the name of wakf was entered in the revenue records of their land.

After this post of Mr. Surya, Superintendent of Police, Haveri district, issued a press release on social media clarifying that the father had given a statement to the police in 2022 that “his son had taken loans of ₹7 lakh and suffered extensive crop damage due to excessive rains, pushing him to take the extreme step.” Tagging the SP’s clarification, Mr. Surya had deleted his earlier post.