Comedian Kunal Kamra
Justice M Nagaprasanna was hearing a petition in Mohan Gowda vs State of Karnataka and another on August 28, when the court expressed concern over the manner in which the police handled the case. The court also questioned the manner in which the police served a notice under Section 35(3) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS). Notices issued under Section 35(3) of the BNSS on August 5 and August 6 directed the petitioner to appear before the police within the following three days.
The petitioner’s lawyer told the court that the case was not based on a complaint from any individual but was registered ‘not on a complaint by anybody but on a suo motu case registered by the Whitefield Police Station’. BENGALURU: The Karnataka high court has pulled up Whitefield Police over the alleged illegal arrest of an activist in connection with a Facebook post celebrating the cancellation of comedian Kunal Kamra’s show in Bengaluru. During the hearing, the judge observed that “Whitefield Police Station appears to have been violating the law time and again. The court questioned the basis on which the police treated the Facebook post as a potential threat to communal harmony. The notice was handed to the petitioner only after he had been secured and taken into custody, at a location a short distance from Whitefield Police Station. The court noted another issue with the timing of the notice. However, by that time, he had already been taken into custody. The high court has now sought an explanation from the concerned Deputy Commissioner of Police and Assistant Commissioner of Police regarding the alleged repeated violations by the Whitefield Police.