HC gives Karandlaje 10 days to apologise for remarks on Rameshwaram cafe blast
The Madras high court on Wednesday granted 10 days’ time for the counsel of Union minister Shobha Karandlaje to get instructions from her if she was willing to hold a press meet to apologise for her remarks on the Rameshwaram cafe blast.
The Madras high court on Wednesday granted 10 days’ time for the counsel of Union minister Shobha Karandlaje to get instructions from her if she was willing to hold a press meet to apologise for her remarks on the Rameshwaram cafe blast.
In a video that had gone viral, the Union minister of state for labour and employment, could be seen blaming “people from Tamil Nadu” for the March 1 blast at the Rameshwaram Cafe in Bengaluru.
Justice G Jayachandran observed that the press conference must make it clear that she has the highest regard for the people of Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu’s advocate general PS Raman had said that the case booked against Karandlaje, a BJP MP, can be quashed if she calls for a press conference and apologises for her remarks.
Karandlaje’s petition to quash the first information report (FIR) against her registered by Tamil Nadu’s Madurai cyber crime police on March 20. It was based on the complaint of a resident against her for “promoting enmity” between different groups.
The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) of Tamil Nadu had complained to the election commission of India (ECI) while the model code of conduct was in effect given the Lok Sabha elections concluded in June. Karandlaje later, on March 19 apologised for her remark.
“People from Tamil Nadu come here, get trained there, and plant bombs here. They placed a bomb in the cafe,” she had said in March, alleging that the bomber was trained in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri forests under Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin’s nose. During the previous hearing, the court had asked her how she made such a claim even before the National Investigation Agency (NIA) began its searches in the case.