A verbal battle between S.N. Narayanaswamy, the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of the ruling Congress, and S. Muniswamy, Member of Parliament (MP) from BJP, at a public meeting in Kolar last Monday took a legal turn with both of them filing a case, and counter case against each other with the Gulpet police.
The police have registered two FIRs charging the duo under intentional insult to provoke breach of peace and criminal intimidation on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.
The duo was seen shouting at each other on stage amidst other dignitaries. The meeting was organised to address the grievances of the people affected by an anti-encroachment drive carried out by the Forest Department. The entire incident was recorded and went viral on social media, causing embarrassment to the officials, and Byrathi Suresh, district in-charge Minister. The police had to struggle hard to drag out the enraged MP from the stage. Heated arguments ensued between the MP and the police in the melee.
Balaji R., president of BJP Yuva Morcha in his complaint alleged that MLA S.N. Narayanaswamy hurled abuses and threatened the MP when he was objecting to the drive for allegedly selectively targeting people and sparing influential people. Mr. Narayanaswamy reacted rudely and hurled abuses at the MP and even issued a threat, he alleged.
Mr. Narayanaswamy in his complaint said that the MP had accused him of sitting on stage with the land grabbers to settle the land disputes. Taking objection, he challenged Mr. Muniswamy to prove his allegations, which led to heated arguments, he said.
The police are gathering the video recording of the programme to initiate investigations. The police will question the officials who were part of the programme to record their versions.
S. Muniswamy later said that he would submit an application to the Lok Sabha speaker for moving a privilege motion against the Kolar district superintendent of police (SP) M. Narayana with regard to Monday’s incident at the Janata Darshan.