A local court in Karnataka has rejected a private complaint, which accused former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of hiding information about his second wife and children in the affidavit submitted before the 2018 Assembly elections.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Preeth J. at Bengaluru noted that to constitute an offence under Section 181 IPC, one must give a false statement on oath or affirmation to a public servant or person authorised to administer an oath or affirmation.
Noting that hiding information stood on a different footing from giving a false statement or information, the court of ACMM Bengaluru held that no offence under Section 181 IPC could be made out against Kumaraswamy.and dismissed the complaint.
Filed by S Ananda, founder of Vishwa Kannada Samaja, the complaint sought action against Kumaraswamy under Section 181 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 125 of the Representation of People Act for not disclosing information regarding his second wife Radhika Kumaraswamy and his children Nikhil Kumaraswamy and Sharmika Kumaraswamy in the poll affidavit.
The court observed that there was a bar under Section 195 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to proceed with a case under Section 181 IPC without a complaint in writing from the public servant, who was given false information.
It further said that Section 125 of the RP Act had the provision of penalising a candidate for giving false information or concealing any information
The ACMM pointed out that there was no document to show that Radhika was the second wife of Kumaraswamy as alleged by the complainant.
It further said that the court could not register any criminal case against the accused only on the basis of a private complaint.
It noted that there cannot be any ‘concept’ of ‘second wife’ under the prevailing law during the lifetime of the first wife.
Regarding the alleged concealment of information about Kumaraswamy’s children, the ACMM noted that there was no column in the affidavit submitted by him under Form No.26 which required information about children to be furnished.
In 2019, some additional points for disclosure were added in the particular form. However, Kumaraswamy had submitted Form 26 in April 2018, which meant he was not required to disclose information about his children then.
Pointing out that no offence under Section 125A of the RP Act could be said to have been committed by the accused, the ACCM dismissed the complaint.
The court said there were no grounds to proceed with the case.