Bengaluru, March 31: Tejasvi Surya, the candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from the Bengaluru South Lok Sabha seat in Karnataka, on Saturday managed to get an interim injunction from a Bengaluru court against reporting "defamatory" news about him. The Bangalore City Civil Court passed an order barring 49 media outlets, including social media giants like Facebook and Google from publishing “false, malicious and derogatory” news about Tejasvi Surya.

The court issued the gag order after hearing a defamation suit filed by Surya against 49 media outlets including English and Kannada newspapers and TV channels. The BJP leader approached the court after several media houses carried news stories reporting allegations of abuse against him. City Civil court judge Dinesh Hegde observed that 'Me Too' and other allegations against Surya surfaced only after he was nominated as the BJP candidate from the Bengaluru South Lok Sabha seat. Tejasvi Surya is BJP Candidate From Bangalore South for 2019 Lok Sabha Elections: Know All About the BJYM Leader.

"How all of a sudden these allegations against the plaintiff emerged immediately after he filed nomination for General Elections is a questionable question," the judge said, as reported by The News Minute. Following the court's order, Surya's advocates issued notices to the media houses on Friday stating "you are not at liberty to publish any scandalous and defamatory statements or any fake news as against our Client".

The "defamatory" articles about Surya were published following a Twitter exchange between columnist Shefali Vaidya and one Dr Som Dutta, who alleged that Surya was a "womaniser, abuser and woman beater". "Dear Shefaliji, I request you to not blindly promote Tejasvi without knowing his full truth. Do you actually want a womaniser, abuser and a woman-beater to lead us? Need proof? I will share. Not every Hindu is dharmik and great speeches don't make a great man," Dutta tweeted.

Replying to @madhusdhanrao7 @ShefVaidya and @Tejasvi_Surya, Dutta also tweeted "Karma gets to everyone my friend. I don't believe in public spats and defamation. Should the party not do background checks before giving ticket. My parents have suffered too much coz of my choice can't let them suffer anymore." The Congress party further tweeted, "Is @Tejasvi_Surya another MJ Akbar in the making? Dear @BJP4India, @Tejasvi_Surya seems to be a great choice. #Bangalore South will remember. #MeToo #LokSabhaPolls2019."

The BJP trashed Congress's "MeToo" charge against its candidate. "A nervous Congress is indulging in slander as it is afraid of its candidate (B.K. Hariprasad) badly losing to Surya in the electoral battle," BJP spokesperson G. Madhusudan told IANS.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 31, 2019 05:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).