BJP candidate Tejasvi gets court injunction against defamatory articles

Tejasvi Surya, the BJP’s candidate from the Bengaluru South constituency, has been granted a temporary injunction by the Bengaluru Civil Court, restraining about 49 media houses from publishing anything defamatory, derogatory or fake during the period of Lok Sabha elections.

This injunction was granted following Surya’s plea against media houses ‘defaming’ him ahead of the 2019 elections. The list includes media houses such as the Times of India, The Hindu, The Bangalore Mirror, The Deccan Herald, The Indian Express, Vijay Karnataka, The Kannada Prabha, TV9, Republic TV,  India Today, News X, Times Now, social media giants like Google, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube and Yahoo, to name a few.

Following articles on Surya’s alleged cheating of a woman, he sought an injunction from being named in defamatory content without proof. A woman claimed in a series of tweets that Surya harassed her over a period of five years. Several media houses reported the incident, with even the Congress taking a jibe at the 28-year old contestant asking if he is ‘another MJ Akbar in the making.’ She had subsequently deleted the tweets and said that it was personal matter.

With Karnataka voting on April 18 and 23, Surya has been swift to push for a curb against such media coverage.