Bengaluru, Jul 23: Karnataka BJP general secretary and Mahadevapura MLA Arvind Limbavali broke down in the legislative assembly on Monday claiming that he had become a victim of a “fake” gay sex video and demanded a probe into the incident.
“It is hard to even imagine such a situation where your family has been traumatised. Only I know what my children are facing because of this defamatory video,” a teary-eyed Limbavali said, referring to the sex tape.
Limbavali volunteered to make a statement on the issue after JD(S) MLA KM Shivalingegowda, who was speaking on the plummeting popularity of state politicians prior to the debate on the trust vote, raised the topic on the floor of the House.
Shivalingegowda claimed legislators were being “shamed” in public. Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar tried to stop Shivalingegowda, stating the sex video was a personal issue and not a topic to be discussed in the House, but Limbavali himself intervened.
Suspecting a political conspiracy behind the tape, Limbavali said, “People are taking to devious ways to stop us. It could be someone from that side (referring to the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition) or this side (his own party) or both. Please order a probe.”
However, the speaker spiked the request stating it was an odd situation (referring to the numbers game in the assembly) and advised Limbavali not to get emotional.
The sex tape has been in circulation on social media for some time and the issue was being discussed in political circles over the past 10 days. In fact, Whitefield division police registered two separate cases based on complaints lodged by Limbavali’s supporters, who alleged morphed videos of their leader were used.
HAL police on Friday registered a case under IT Act based on a complaint filed by Girish Bharadwaj, Limbavali’s assistant. “Girish alleged in his complaint that Limbavali’s political rivals created a morphed video to assassinate his character,” a police officer said. “The alleged video was posted on Facebook pages of Suddi Samachara and SR Srinivas Gubbi (I Support Nikhil Kumar Swamy).”
Marathahalli police too have registered a separate case on the same video based on a complaint filed by local BJP leader Jayachandra Reddy PK. The latter claimed that his photos were morphed in the video. “Miscreants have created the video and circulated it through WhatsApp groups and a FB page named Karnataka JDS,” Jayachandra alleged in his complaint. He demanded action against four WhatsApp group admins — Ganesh, Manu, Ganesh Gowda and Vasantha B Eshwaragere of Devarahalli.
MN Anucheth, deputy commissioner of police (Whitefield division), said two FIRs have been registered in HAL and Marathahalli police stations and around five more supporters of the MLA have approached the police to file cases. “Efforts are on to trace the miscreants who uploaded or circulated the alleged video on social media,” Anucheth said.
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