Bengaluru court restrains media from linking Siddaramaiah to honey-trap videos

A local court in Bengaluru on Tuesday granted an ex parte ad-interim injunction to veteran Congress leader Siddaramaiah restraining 42 media organisations, digital platforms and other defendants from publishing or circulating videos allegedly linking him to a honey-trap.

Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge B Pushpanjali passed the order in a defamation suit filed by him.

The court restrained the defendants from telecasting, rebroadcasting or disseminating videos and clips, screenshots, extracts, transcripts or edited versions of the content.


Siddaramaiah said his name was being falsely linked to a sting-operation video circulating on social media and alleged that the campaign was intended to damage his reputation.

“Over the past few days, I have noticed a malicious campaign being carried out by linking my name to a sting-operation video circulating across various social media platforms. This appears to be an attempt to tarnish my reputation and assassinate my character for political reasons,” he said in a statement.

The Congress leader said he had no connection with the video and had approached the court as a precautionary measure. He added that advances in technology had made it easier to present falsehoods as facts.

“My conscience is clear that I am completely innocent in this matter. I firmly believe that truth will ultimately prevail,” he said.

Siddaramaiah said he supported freedom of expression but had been compelled to seek legal relief because some sections of the media were allegedly misusing that freedom by linking him to unverified allegations.

The 42 defendants include Kannada and English newspapers, television news channels and technology platforms such as WhatsApp, YouTube LLC, Google India, Yahoo India and Facebook India.

Siddaramaiah said he had also lodged a complaint with the Bengaluru Police Commissioner seeking an impartial investigation into the matter.