BENGALURU: Observing that the dignity and life of women are important, the Karnataka HC on Friday refus-ed to stay the probe against former Hassan BJP MLA Preetham Gowda in a case registered against him under the provisions of the IPC and Information Technology Act for allegedly circulating pen drives containing explicit videos and photos of a victim of sexual assault.
The court, however, restrained the SIT from arresting or detaining him unless he doesn’t cooperate with the investigation and gave liberty to the investigating agency to recover any material pos-sessed by him if any in need of investigation.
Justice Krishna S Dixit passed the interim order after hearing the petition filed by Preetham questioning the legality of the registration of cri-me registered by a victim with the Cyber Crime Police Station of the Criminal Investigation Dep-artment. The court is not convinced to stay the ongoing probe which can be done in a normative way and he can be questioned from 7 am to 9 pm by the SIT, he said.
Senior Counsel CV Nagesh appearing for the petiti-oner argued that there are no ingredients to attract the offences invoked against him and the registration of crime itself is bad in law. It is nothing but political witch-hunting and there is a need to put an end to all this, he argued.
The complaint was registered based on the statement of a victim that people are talking about the circulation of pen drives by the petitioner and others but she doesn’t say the name of the petitioner directly, he argued.
Special Public Prosecutor Prof Ravivarma Kumar argued. “There was an allegation that the pen drives were said to have been circulated by Kiran, Sharath and Preetham Gowda. This act of the petitioner constitutes prima facie offences registered against him and the hands of the investigating agency cannot be tied,” he argued. The court observed it is a question of the dignity and life of our women and there are serious offences which require investigation. “No lady will come forward and lie in this kind of offence which directly affects the autonomy and privacy of women. Therefore, the ongoing probe cannot be stalled. Thus, notice be issued to the SIT to file objections,” the court said.