Bengaluru court orders removal of over 8,800 online links about Dharmasthala ‘mass burial’
A Bengaluru court has ordered the removal of 8,842 online links containing allegedly defamatory content related to the claims of mass graves, disappearances, and crimes against women and students over the past two decades in Dharmasthala, a temple town in Karnataka, The Times of India reported on Tuesday.
The order, passed on July 18 by the Additional City Civil and Sessions Court, came on a petition filed by Harshendra Kumar D, secretary of the Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Education Society and brother of Bharatiya Janata Party MP D Veerendra Heggade.
The Heggade family manages the Dharmasthala temple and institutions associated with it.
Earlier this month, a first information report was registered in Dharmasthala based on a complaint by a sanitary worker, who alleged that he was forced to bury the bodies of several women bearing signs of sexual assault.
On July 19, the Karnataka government announced the formation of a Special Investigation Team to probe the case.
The court on July 18 granted an ex-parte injunction – an order passed without hearing the other side – directing that the links be “deleted or de-indexed” immediately. It also barred media organisations from publishing or sharing any content related to the petitioner.
Among the links to be deleted are coverage of the allegations by newspapers, TV channels, digital portals, YouTube creators and social media users,...
Read more
News