BENGALURU: Even as debate is raging about Legislative Assembly Speaker K B Koliwad’s orders to arrest editors of two tabloids for breach of privilege, the Home Ministry submitted a report on Wednesday to Assembly Secretariat explaining the reasons for failing to execute the orders so far.
Additional chief secretary of the Home department Subash Chandra, DG-IGP RK Dutta and Bengaluru city police commissioner Praveen Sood met Assembly Secretary S Murthy and explained the steps taken by the department to execute orders for arresting the two journalists.
The Assembly had passed the resolution against Ravi Belagere, editor of Hi Bangalore, and Anil Raj, editor and publisher of Yelahanka Voice, for breach of privilege based on the complaint filed by Assembly members BM Nagaraj (Shiraguppa) and SR Vishwanath (Yelahanka) respectively.
The resolution recommended imprisonment of the two journalists for one year and imposition of a fine of Rs 10,000.
Acting on the directions of Speaker Koliwad, Assembly Secretary Murthy had sought an action taken report to be submitted by 3pm from Home Department on Wednesday and Subash Chandra submitted the report stating the reasons for the delay in executing the orders.
However, Murthy refused to divulge the details of the report submitted by the Home department.
He said, “The report would be forwarded to Speaker Koliwad. Only the Speaker is empowered to decide future course of action in the case.”