A march by hundreds of Janata Dal (Secular) workers towards the Director General of Police’s office in Bengaluru on Saturday disrupted traffic around Town Hall, as Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy demanded an impartial Special Investigation Team probe into a video involving former chief minister Siddaramaiah.
The protesters began at the JD(S) headquarters, JP Bhavan, and proceeded towards the office of Director General and Inspector General of Police M A Saleem. Police barricades and additional security deployment around Town Hall affected traffic movement as the procession approached the police headquarters.
In its complaint, the JD(S) sought an investigation into the recording, editing and circulation of the video, which has been circulating on social media and was recently broadcast by some local television channels. The complaint named Rakesh Shetty, described in the petition as the owner and anchor of Power TV, and sought an inquiry into what the party called a political conspiracy behind the footage.
The purported sting video was filmed in 2023 and relates to incidents from 2011, when Siddaramaiah was the Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly during the tenure of the B S Yediyurappa-led BJP government. The allegations connected to those earlier incidents have not been independently established.
The JD(S) alleged that the footage was edited and misused to target political leaders and facilitate blackmail and extortion. It also alleged that a woman connected to the video was being persuaded to appear before the media with promises of financial assistance. These claims have not been independently verified. The party further questioned Shetty’s alleged access to police protection and political patronage.
The complaint requested verification of the video’s source and authenticity, forensic examination of the recordings, voice-sample analysis and examination of the original video and other digital evidence. It also sought the identification of everyone involved in recording, editing and circulating the material, followed by action under applicable provisions of the Information Technology Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
The march followed a sit-in by Kumaraswamy outside the Bengaluru City Police Commissioner’s office two days earlier. After meeting Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh, Kumaraswamy alleged that police were targeting JD(S) workers, including members of the party’s social media team, in connection with videos linked to Siddaramaiah.
Kumaraswamy claimed that police took one social media team member to an unidentified shed or godown for questioning on Tuesday. He alleged that the worker was questioned for several hours and asked to contact another person, who was later questioned as well. Kumaraswamy accused the Congress-led state government of using the police to target political opponents and challenged the police to question him first. The allegations have not been independently established.
Bengaluru police have questioned more than five people in connection with the controversy, according to the report. Those questioned include Shetty, who was questioned on Tuesday, and some JD(S) workers. The party has warned that it will launch a statewide agitation if its complaint is not acted upon. The immediate next steps are expected to depend on the police response to the demand for a probe and the examination of the digital evidence.
