MYSURU: The Mandya West Police have registered an FIR against Higher Education and IT/BT Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan and BJP candidate M V Ravishankar on charges of violating the model code of conduct while campaigning for Karnataka Legislative Council elections from the South Graduates’ Constituency scheduled to be held on June 13. The FIR was filed following directions from the Second Judicial Magistrate of First Class Court under the Representation of People Act and under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for campaigning for Ravishankar in Mandya Pre-University College and Mandya Medical College.
ZP CEO named Ashwath guilty
The court issued the direction based on a report submitted by Mandya Zilla Panchayat CEO Divya Prabhu to Deputy Commissioner Ashwathi, in which she said that the primary investigation by the team has found that the minister had violated the code of conduct.
The ZP CEO had conducted a probe following a private complaint from Congress General Secretary Sundahalli Manjunath who had accused the minister of violating the model code of conduct by campaigning for Ravishankar in Mandya colleges. In the report, the CEO has said that a probe team visited several educational institutions on May 18 and gathered evidence against the minister.
“As per the minister’s tour programme, there was no official visit planned and the Taluk Panchayat termed his visit as interaction with voters,” the report said. The CEO further said that as per the model code of conduct, the minister cannot combine his official visit with electioneering work and cannot make use of official machinery or personnel during electioneering work.