Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP/MS)

Bengaluru, Jun 8: The state high court has dismissed a criminal case filed against the BJP MLA, former minister and BJP national general secretary C T Ravi and his three supporters relating to violating model code of conduct during the previous Lok Sabha election.

Ravi and others had filed criminal petition seeking to quash the case against them. The single judge bench of the high court presided over by Justice Sunil Dutt Yadav which took up the application for consideration, dismissed the case.

The bench opined that the electoral officer should have filed the complaint in the magistrate's court. It observed that in this case, the complaint was directly made to the police station. As law has been violated in the process of registration of complaint, the same is not fit for hearing, the bench opined.

It may be recalled, during the last Lok Sabha elections, at around 1 pm on April 7, 2019, it is alleged that C T Ravi and his supporters held a meeting with 80 to 100 party workers at Bagehalli of Sakleshpur taluk. However, they did not seek any prior permission from the Election Commission to conduct this meeting. Election officer had promptly registered a case with Sakleshpur police station citing this as clear violation of election code of conduct. The police had registered an FIR, investigated the matter and submitted report to court. The case was in the court of people representatives at the inquire phase.