Covid-19 Bed Allotment Scam: Bengaluru Court Restrains Media From Publishing Defamatory Articles Against MLA Satish Reddy

Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge Veena M. Naikar in its order said "The defendants are hereby restrained from publishing, transmitting, displaying, distributing or in any manner permitting circulation of the articles, reports, videos etc., through internet or television or any other media till their appearance by way of Ad Interim Temporary Injunction."

In his suit Reddy has claimed damages of Rs. 20 Crores and also sought for the relief of Permanent Injunction against the defendants from publishing, displaying, distributing etc. He also sought for Mandatory Injunction directing the defendants to remove or block the news articles published against him in the websites etc.

It is stated by him that he is a social worker and member of Karnataka Legislative Assembly from Bommnahalli constituency in Bengaluru Urban District and fully involved in helping the people impacted by lockdown in Covid­19 pandemic period.

Further it was submitted that one Babu was arrested in the alleged Bed Allotment Scam, and many articles were published in the newspapers. It was claimed in the news reports that followers of BJP ministers are involved in the case by mentioning the name of the plaintiff.

Relying on the First information report and the chargesheet filed in the case by the police it was said that nowhere the name of the plaintiff is shown , but the media has highlighted the name of the plaintiff.

The plaintiff also relied on judgements in the case of Sidhartha Vashisht @ Manu Sharma V/s State (NCT of Delhi); Seetharam Venkatraman & others V/s Krishna Palemar; K.V.Sharath Chandra & others V/s Hemanth Kashyap; and Nirmaljit Singh Narula V/s Yashwant Singh & others.

The court in its order said "I have gone through the above said decisions. In view of the said decisions and considering the facts and circumstances of the case, this Court comes to the conclusion that plaintiff has made out prima facie case against the defendants and plaintiff is entitled for the Ad­-interim relief as the publication will effect the reputation of the plaintiff."

The respondents in the case are --Times Internet Limited, Bennett, Coleman And Company Limited, The Printers )Mysore) Private Limited, Spunklane Media Private Limited, Vrl Media Limited, Manipal Media Network Limited, Samyuktha Karnataka, Pratidhvani, Facebook India Online Services Private Limited And Facebook Inc.

In May, the police had started the investigation following an allegation by BJP Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya. It was claimed by Surya that bribes are being taken to allocate Covid beds. He also stated that a nexus of BBMP officers, Arogya Mitras and certain private agents is behind this scam. This had led to an artificial shortage of beds in the city.