Sex tape case: 6 Karnataka ministers move court to restrain media

Bengaluru: A total of six ministers in the B S Yediyurappa government on Friday moved a Bengaluru court seeking a stay against media outlets from publishing or broadcasting anything defamatory against them.

The ministers include B Basavaraj, Dr K Sudhakar, BC Patil, Shivram Hebbar, H T Somashekar and K C Narayana Gowda moved a city court moved the Bengaluru court and demanded the media to stop broadcasting/printing/publishing any defamatory or unauthenticated content about them.

The six Karnataka ministers have moved to Civil Court here in connection with a sex tape case allegedly involving Ramesh Jarkiholi, who recently resigned as minister.

The six ministers are among the 17 MLAs who had rebelled and led to the fall of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in July 2019, which paved the way for the BJP to come to power.
He was reacting to the recent allegation of sexual harassment against former Karnataka Major and Medium Water Resources Minister Jarkiholi by social activist Dinesh Kallahalli on March 2. Jarakiholi resigned within 24 hours of the release of a purported sex tape.

There was an uproar following Jarkiholi’s resignation with former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Friday stating that persons who claimed to be in possession of obscene CDs and who were using them to blackmail politicians should be arrested. “These blackmailers” are a threat to the society, the JD(S) leader said.

Refusing to take any names, the JD(S) leader alleged that the entire episode took place in the past two to three months and many high profile people were involved in the case.

“It is the responsibility of the government to get to the bottom of the case and bring out the truth,” Kumaraswamy urged the Karnataka government.