Tejasvi booked for ‘fake news’ on farmer suicide
He had claimed that a farmer in Haveri died by suicide as his land was being taken over by Waqf Board.
Haveri district police on Friday filed a first information report (FIR) against Tejasvi Surya, Member of Parliament (MP) from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) representing Bengaluru South, and editors of two Kannada online news portals, accusing them of “circulating misinformation”.
Surya had recently claimed on social media that a farmer in Haveri died by suicide as his land was being taken over by the Waqf Board, attributing the alleged incident to minority appeasement by the Karnataka government.
Surya’s now-deleted post on X read, “A farmer in Haveri commits suicide after finding his land taken over by Waqf! In their haste to appease minorities CM Siddaramaiah and minister B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan have unleashed catastrophic effects in Karnataka that are becoming impossible to contain with every passing day.” His post also linked to a story from Kannada Duniya, a regional news portal, suggesting similar information.
However, hours after Surya’s post, Haveri superintendent of police (SP) issued a clarification, stating that the farmer, a 24-year-old resident in Hangal taluk, had taken his own life in January 2022 due to debt burdens and crop losses, not issues involving land ownership or Waqf. According to the police, the deceased’s father had earlier reported that his son had accumulated around ₹7 lakh in loans and was dealing with significant crop damage caused by excessive rainfall.
On Friday, the FIR was filed by the Cybercrime, Economic, and Narcotic Offences (CEN) police of Haveri following a complaint from Sunil Huchannavar, a constable in the social media monitoring cell at the Haveri SP office. It accused Surya and the editors of Kannada Duniya and Kannada News of spreading false information with intention to create religious enmity. Police also said that the suicide case had been closed under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), a provision used in cases involving unnatural deaths.
The FIR has been filed under Section 353(2) of the BNS, which prohibits the publication or dissemination of information likely to foster enmity based on religion, race, caste, or community. A conviction under this section could result in imprisonment for up to three years, a fine, or both.
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“The news shared is false. No such incident reported. The ...suicide case was reported on 06/01/2022, and it was reported to be due to loan and crop loss. Case was registered u/s 174 CrPC in Adur PS. Final report was already submitted,” the Haveri police said in a statement.
Home minister G Parameshwara, while addressing the media in Bengaluru, commented on the incident, expressing concern over what he described as a pattern of misinformation by BJP leaders. “This incident from two years ago is now being posted as recent on social media. Some even post incidents from abroad. In such cases, the law provides provisions to take action,” he said.
Following the FIR and the police clarification, Surya deleted the post and said, “Thanks for the information. The tweet stands deleted. I will henceforth not rely on the news agency that reported it. Given the rampant amount of Waqf conversion notices to 1000s of farmers across the state, one is easily led to believe such outcomes.”
However, hours later, he again said in a post: “Yesterday when I tweeted about Farmer’s suicide in Haveri due to Waqf land grab, he (Priyank Kharge) got the Haveri Police to register a false case, accusing me of spreading misinformation. He got the Police to not only lie, but he even intimidated media to hide the reality.”
“Today, the father of the deceased farmer himself has exposed how changes in Pahani by Waqf Board pushed his son to suicide...Instead of covering up the truth, CM and his Ministers must at least now act to protect the farmers’ interest.,” he added.
This development comes amid mounting concerns and political tension around Waqf land ownership across Karnataka. Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) chairman Jagdambika Pal, accompanied by Surya, recently visited districts across the state to discuss Waqf land issues with local farmers.
Pal has announced that a fact-finding report will be presented in the winter session of Parliament. In parallel, Siddaramaiah has instructed state officials to halt new Waqf notices.