Case against Tejasvi Surya for misleading claim about farmers’ suicide

The post has since been deleted by Tejasvi Surya.

Haveri (Karnataka):

The Haveri police station in Karnataka registered an FIR against Bharatiya Janata Party MP Tejasvi Surya for making a false claim that a farmer in the district had committed suicide after his land was requisitioned by the Waqf Board.

According to the FIR registered on Thursday, Tejasvi Surya alleged that a farmer, identified as Rudrappa Channappa Balikai, died by suicide after he came to know that his land was “taken over by Waqf” and blamed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and BZ Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan for “unleashed catastrophic consequences in Karnataka” in a post on

The post has since been deleted by Mr Surya, who also mentioned a news report from a Kannada newspaper.

The Haveri Superintendent of Police has also clarified that the claim about the reason for the suicide is false.

“The news shared is false. No such incident has been reported. The farmer mentioned here, Rudrappa Channappa Balikai, was reported on 01-06-2022 and is said to be due to loss of loans and crops. The case was registered under 174 CrPC in Adur PS. The final report has already been submitted,” read the message.

The BJP MP further said that he would no longer rely on the source who reported this.

“Thanks for the information. The tweet will be deleted. I will henceforth not rely on the news agency that reported it. Given the rampant number of WAQF conversion notices to thousands of farmers across the state, one is easily led to believe such results, ” read a message from the MP.

The row over Waqf land and properties in the state has intensified in recent days with the Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Committee on the Waqf Amendment Bill, Jagdambika Pal, also visiting several districts and meeting farmers’ organizations in Huballi, Vijayapura and other districts, accompanied by Tejasvi Surya.

Mr Pal also announced that an inquiry report would be presented during the upcoming winter session of Parliament.

“We will submit the report in the upcoming winter session of Parliament,” Pal told ANI, adding that he was in Karnataka to meet farmers after receiving an invitation from BJP MP Tejasvi Surya.

The BJP has alleged that Waqf designations have been added to land records for 44 properties in Indi and Chadachan taluks of Vijayapura district without proper notice, following a meeting between Karnataka Chief Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan and district officials.

However, Prime Minister Siddaramaiah announced that he has directed officials to stop issuing notices to farmers and withdraw the notices already issued.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)