BENGALURU: In a big relief for former Karnataka deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, the Karnataka high court on Tuesday stayed for four weeks the further investigation in pursuance of the FIR registered against him by the Devaraja police in Mysuru city on May 24,2023 in connection with his alleged provocative speech made on February 15,2023 at Mandya.
In his interim order Justice M Nagaprasanna has noted that the soul of of the section 153 of IPC is that any statement made by any person should be so provocative that it should result in rioting or even if it does not result in any rioting, it should be capable of resulting in rioting.
"No such incident is narrated as the statement was made on February 15,2023 and we are three months away.. Therefore, the dominant ingredient of section 153 is prima facie not met. In the light of offence not meeting the prima facie the ingredient of section 153 and the improbability of such an offence being met on the ingredients noted in the complaint, permitting further proceedings/investigation against the petitioner would run foul of the judgement of the Supreme Court in the case of state of State of Haryana v/s Bhajan Lal", the Judge further noted in the order while directing the police to file their statement of objections.
