BENGALURU: Self-proclaimed soothsayer T D R Harischandra Gowda had to pay a price on Thursday for filing frivolous public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to conduct investigation against the authorities who failed to prevent the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack in 2008 though he had ‘predicted it’ three years earlier in 2005.
Taking serious exception, the Karnataka High Court dismissed his PIL and imposed a cost of `5,000 on him. On the other hand, Gowda gave an undertaking before the court that he will take care not to file such PILs in future. A division bench of Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice R Devdas directed him to deposit the cost with the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (Natural Calamity-2018) within 30 days.
Harischandra Gowda, who argued the case on his own (party-in-person), has filed several PILs before the High Court. In one such petition filed after the recent assembly elections, he sought directions to the Governor to invite him to be sworn in as Chief Minister to form the government and make Karnataka free of corruption. That too was dismissed.
Referring to it, the High Court observed regarding the present PIL, “On going through the petition, there is no genuine cause in this PIL. We are inclined to dismiss the petition imposing exemplary cost”. At this juncture, Gowda pleaded that he will take care not to file such PIL and also gave undertaking to approach the court only for public cause.
In his plea, Harishchandra Gowda (65), hailing from Tudur village in Thirthahalli taluk of Shivamogga district, sought directions to the Ministry of Home Affairs to investigate, inquire and take suitable action and fix liability on bureaucrats who ‘acted negligently and failed to prevent’ the terror attack in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, despite his ‘prediction’ of the attack in 2005 itself.
‘26/11 could have been avoided if pooja was conducted’
Harischandra Gowda presented a letter dated November 26, 2000 written to Congress leader D K Shivakumar, mentioning the likelihood the 26/11 attack where he claimed it can be prevented if (then) Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh conducts special puja at Sri Venkataramana Swamy temple at Tudur in Mandagadde hobli of Shivamogga district. A copy of the letter written to Shivakumar was marked to then Defence Minister A K Antony, Gowda claimed.
Letters to Pratibha Patil, Modi too
In his petition, Harishchandra Gowda also narrated that till today, no action was taken despite (then) President Pratibha Patil referring the matter to the Ministry of Home Affairs on June 19, 2010, based on the representation dated June 4, 2010 submitted by him. Further, he stated that nothing happened even after writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2016. But he had no answer to the court’s question why he had approached the court eight years after the President referred the matter to Ministry of Home Affairs.