TV journalist Sudhir Chaudhary booked for ‘fake’ news on Karnataka's minority scheme

Police in central Bengaluru have booked Hindi journalist Sudhir Chaudhary and news channel Aaj Tak for spreading “fake news” about a Karnataka government scheme for members of religious minority communities. 

The FIR lodged by the Seshadripuram police late on Tuesday night invoked IPC sections 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony). Both sections are non-bailable. 

The complainant is Shivakumar S, Assistant Administrative Officer at the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation (KMDC), a state government agency under the Minority Welfare Department. The KMDC office is located in Seshadripuram. 

According to the complaint, Chaudhary “falsely claimed” during his prime-time show Black and White on Aaj Tak that Karnataka provides a financial subsidy only to Muslims, Christians and other religious minorities, leaving Hindus out.

Chaudhary called the scheme “minority appeasement”. The show was aired on September 11. Chaudhary is a consulting editor at Aaj Tak. 

Shivakumar stated that the KMDC provides a 50 per cent subsidy of up to Rs 3 lakh to poor members of religious minorities for buying autos, cabs and goods taxis, provided they fulfil the eligibility criteria on annual family income,  age, domicile, etc. 

A similar scheme is run for poor Hindus by the Dr BR Ambedkar Development Corporation, which functions under Karnataka’s Backward Classes Welfare Department, Shivakumar stated. “It’s a lie to say that such a scheme is only for religious minorities,” he added. 

Shekhar HT, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central), confirmed to DH that the FIR had been registered and added that further suitable action, including summoning the suspects for questioning, would be taken. 

K’taka MP’s post

Incidentally, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, and Skill Development Rajeev Chandrasekar was among the first to tweet about the KMDC scheme, calling it “another example of shameless, lazy, appeasement politics of bribing certain communities”. 

Chandrasekhar is a Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka. 

What is the scheme? 

The Swawalambi Sarathi scheme is one of the seven loan programmes run by the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation (KMDC). It is open to poor members of the Muslim, Christian, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist communities. 

It was launched many years ago and was continued by the previous BJP governments. 

Beneficiaries get a 50 per cent subsidy of up to Rs 3 lakh to buy autos, cabs and goods taxis. They have to pay 10 per cent of the vehicle cost and repay the loan at the end of the tenure.