Mangaluru, Dec 5: On charges of defaming the Dharmadhikari of Dharmasthala Dr Veerendra Heggade, the presiding deity Manjunatha Swamy and the Dharmasthala Kshetra, the third JMFC court on Thursday sentenced founder-editor of evening daily Karavali Ale B V Seetaram, his wife and owner of the publication S Rohini and then editor B S Shivaprasad to 30 months of punishment in connection with five cases.

B V Seetaram walking out of Karnataka High Court along with his wife Rohini in February 2009 a month after his detention (File Photo)
As a personal complainant, Dr Veerendra Heggade had lodged five complaints against the guilty accusing them of defaming him and hurting the religious sentiments of believers by making false accusations against the Kshetra.
In one of the complaints, it was also alleged that the guilty had fabricated the stories published in the evening newspaper against the Kshetra and Dharmadhikari, thereby also violating a ban ordered by the civil court in this regard.
During the course of hearing of the trial, it was also claimed that the three had written defaming articles against the complainant under fictitious aliases with the intention of maligning the reputation of the Dharmadhikari and the Kshetra.
During the trial proceedings, attorney B Vardhaman Jain, principal of SDM Law College, Mangalore Dr B K Ravindra, director of SDM Business and Management Institution Dr Devaraj and convenor of Adarsha Vidyalaya Balakrishna Bhandary testified in favour of the Dharmadhikari.
Finding that the three accused were guilty of creating false anonymous letters which were defaming in nature, the third JMFC court sentenced them to six months' punishment for each of the five cases, totaling to 30 months' punishment altogether. In addition to this, the court ordered each of the guilty to pay a fine of Rs 15,000 altogether as part of the judgment.




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