Karnataka: FIR registered against BJP MP Pratap Simha for making 'derogatory remark' against CM Siddaramaiah

Sources said that the FIR was registered on Tuesday night by the Devaraja Police in Mysuru city under the provisions of IPC Sections 504 and 153 following a complaint by Congress workers. The Congress workeres accused Simha of making derogatory statements against CM Siddaramaiah by calling him 'Somari Sidda' (sluggish Siddaramaiah) during a Hanuman Jayanthi program.

Mysuru (Karnataka): Karnataka Police have filed an FIR against BJP MP from Pratap Simha for making “derogatory remark” against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in Mysuru district, sources said on Wednesday. It is learnt that the FIR was lodged by the Devaraja Police in Mysuru city under the provisions of IPC Sections 504 and 153, following a complaint by Congress workers. MP Simha had referred to CM Siddaramaiah as "somari Sidda'' (sluggish Siddaramaiah) during a Hanuman Jayanthi program organized in Hunasur town on Tuesday.

"CM Siddaramaiah is personally attacking me due to insecurity. There are 28 MPs in the state, and he chooses to target only me. I am not sitting idle like 'Somari Sidda' (sluggish Siddaramaiah) and indulging in caste politics. I am into the politics of development, and that's why I am being targeted," said the BJP MP.

On Tuesday night, Congress leaders and workers blocked vehicles on the Mysore-Hunasur road and staged a protest against MP Pratap Simha for the remarks. The protestors expressed their outrage by lying on the road demanding action against the BJP MP. The protest was withdrawn after the police assured them of registering an FIR. B.J. Vijayakumar, Mysuru Rural Congress President who lodged the complaint, stated that Pratap Simha is attempting to create a communal rift between Hindus and Muslims.

"With this statement and also by making similar baseless allegations constantly, accusing CM of caste politics, Pratap Simha is hampering the charisma of CM, and also trying to provoke communal chaos between Hindu and Muslim communities, and hamper public peace ahead of Lok Sabha election," reads the complaint by the Congress worker.

Simha is in the middle of controversy for having issued visitor passes to two of the intruders in the Parliament security breach on the 22nd anniversary of the 2001 terror attack.