Karnataka High Court Stays FIR Against Youtuber Sameer MD In Case Accusing Him Of Hurting Religious Sentiments.

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday, by way of an interim order, stayed till March 19, further proceedings in a criminal case registred against YouTuber Sameer MD, accused of hurting religious sentiments by airing in a video in which he discussed a 2012 rape and murder case.

Justice Hemant Chandangoudar passed the order while hearing the petition filed by the YouTuber seeking to quash the FIR registered against him under Section 299 of BNS.

The prosecution was initiated after Sameer had posted a video on his YouTube channel 'Dhootha: Sameer MD'. The video delves into several criminal cases spanning decades in the Dharmasthala region, with particular focus on the 2012 rape and murder, the wrongful conviction and subsequent acquittal of Santosh Rao, and patterns of alleged influence in multiple criminal investigations.

Advocate A Velan, for the petitioner, argued that the FIR was a gross abuse of the legal process and violated the petitioner's fundamental right to expression.

Further it was contended that Sameer had not uttered a single word against any religion or religious belief in his video. All statements made in the video were on the basis of publicly available information.

Following which the court granted the interim order.

Earlier, another bench had stayed the notice issued by the police under Section 35(3) of the BNS, 2023, directing the petitioner to appear before the Investigating Officer.

The court had said, “The notice is completely contrary to the Circular dated 30.12.2024, which is issued by the State Government in pursuance to the order passed by this Court, in as much as the notice that does not append to it a complete copy of the FIR and the complaint so registered. Therefore, there is a violation of the law."

Case Title: Sameer M D AND State of Karnataka

Case No: WP 6794/2025

Appearance: Advocate on Record A. Velan, assisted by Advocates Pawan Shyam, Ojaswi, Dheeraj SJ, Ms. Navpreet Kaur, Nilay Rai, Prince Singh, Sachin Deshpande, Vishwas N, Devin Gowda, Ananya, Sushant VA, and Sainath DM.