Karnataka High Court Stays FIR Against Arnab Goswami, BJP's Amit Malviya For Spreading 'False Claim' About Congress Party's Turkey Office

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday (May 22) in an interim order stayed further investigation in an FIR registered against BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya and Republic TV Editor-in-Chief Arnab Goswami for allegedly spreading a false claim that Turkey's Istanbul Congress Centre is the international office of Congress party. 

A vacation judge, Justice S Rachaiah passed the interim order while hearing the petition filed by the accused seeking to quash the offences registered against them under sections 192 (provocation with intent to cause riot) and 352 (intentional insult to provoke breach of peace) under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

Senior Advocate Arun Shyam appearing for Goswami argued that “The petitioner has aired a programme where he has questioned that Turkey is against our national interest. Why does the political party have to have an office in that country? That was his opinion expressed in a news channel. The same content is published in digital content where inadvertently a picture was posted of the political parties office but that was not the actual picture of the party. By oversight the junior editor posted it and immediately we clarified it. Absolutely there is no case made out.”

The additional state public prosecutor B N Jagadeesha opposed the plea stating "false information is diseminated through him and he later issued a corrigendum. The programme is continued to be aired both in print and electronic media and mere asking corrigendum or apologising...” Referring to Supreme Court judgement in the case of Madhya Pradesh Minister Vijay Shah it was argued the Apex court has said let the investigation continue.

Further it was said “The police have gone to Delhi to serve notice and the petitioner has called the local police.” 

The bench on going through the records issued notice to the respondents and passed the interim order. 

The case was filed at the High Grounds police station on Tuesday following a complaint by Shrikant Swaroop B N, head of the legal cell of the Indian Youth Congress.

The complaint alleged Malaviya and Goswami of orchestrating a "criminally motivated campaign" to spread false claims that the Istanbul Congress Centre in Turkey is the international office of the Indian National Congress (INC). The misinformation was "deliberately designed to mislead the Indian public, defame a major political party, stir nationalist sentiments, and incite unrest."

Case title: Arnab Goswami AND State of Karnataka and Anr &

Amit Malviya AND State of Karnataka and Anr CRLP 7425 of 2025

Appearance: Senior Advocates Arun Shyam and Prabhuling K Navadgi for Petitioners

ASPP B N Jagadeesha for Respondent.