BENGALURU: Police in Gurmitkal, Yadgir district, registered a suo motu case against former BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal for an alleged hate speech targeting Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi and the first PM Jawaharlal Nehru, at a public event. The case was filed following Yatnal’s controversial remarks at a Shivaji Jayanti celebration held in Gurmitkal on February 21.
According to the FIR, the MLA made several provocative and objectionable statements about national leaders and allegedly referred to “love jihad”, targeting a specific community. Police said the speech, widely circulated on news and social media platforms, sparked public outrage and was seen as an attempt to disturb communal harmony.
After reviewing video recordings of the speech and conducting a preliminary inquiry, police registered a suo motu case under several sections of Bharatiya Nyaya Samhita.
The sections pertain to promoting enmity between groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence or language, and acts prejudicial to communal harmony, deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings, uttering words with deliberate intent to wound religious sentiments, intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace, statements conducive to public mischief etc. Police confirmed investigation is under way.
In his speech, Yatnal reportedly claimed he doesn’t accept Gandhi as the “father of the nation” or Nehru as India’s first Prime Minister. He claimed that Subhas Chandra Bose was the country’s first PM.
He allegedly made disparaging remarks about Gandhi’s role in India’s freedom struggle, questioning whether spinning the charkha led to independence. Opposition leaders accused the MLA of unnecessarily attempting to inflame communal tensions. Yadgir SP Prithvi Shankar confirmed to TNIE that one case was filed against him, invoking five sections.