Case against Tejasvi Surya over false claim on farmer's suicide

Haveri: An FIR has been filed against BJP MP Tejasvi Surya and two vernacular epapers for allegedly spreading misinformation about a farmer’s suicide.

According to the FIR, an officer from the Social Media Monitoring Cell in the Haveri District Police encountered a headline in two vernacular e-papers (Kannada Duniya epaper and Kannada news epaper) around 1 pm on Thursday. The headline claimed that a farmer in Haveri had taken his life after discovering his land record was marked as Waqf property.

The report stated that the people of Haranagi village were angry as Rudrappa had committed suicide after finding Waqf's name in his land document.

Tejasvi Surya shared this information on his 'X' account, tagging the news outlets and stating, "A farmer in Haveri commits suicide after finding his land is taken over by Waqf! In their haste to appease minorities, CM @siddaramaiah and minister @BZZameerAhmedK have unleashed catastrophic effects in Karnataka that are becoming impossible to contain with every passing day."

After a fact-check officials found that no recent farmer suicide in Haveri was related to Waqf issues.

The police found that the news referenced an old incident of January 6, 2022, involving Rudrappa's suicide due to debt in Haranagiri village within Adur Police Station limits and it was not connected to Waqf. This case had already been documented under UDR No. 3/2022, CRPC Section 174, with a final report submitted.

The FIR, filed Thursday night, states that the news portals misrepresented facts by linking the old incident to current Waqf issues. Following clarification from the police on X, Tejasvi Surya deleted his post. He later posted a response on the same platform: "Thanks for the information. The tweet stands deleted. I will henceforth not rely on the news agency that reported it. Given the rampant amount of WAQF conversion notices to thousands of farmers across the State, one is easily led to believe such outcomes."