Chennai (Tamil Nadu): The Madras High Court on Thursday quashed a case against the Union Minister of State Shobha Karandlaje.
Karandlaje, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Labour, stoked a controversy when she said without evidence that people from Tamil Nadu were responsible for the blast incident at Rameswaram Cafe in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
Regarding this, DMK Cadre Thiagarajan filed a complaint. Based on his complaint, a case was registered against Karandlaje in Madurai under relevant sections of the IPC including inciting a riot between two groups and disturbing public peace.
A petition was filed in the Madras High Court on behalf of Karandlaje seeking to quash the case. When the case came up for hearing last time, an affidavit was filed on behalf of Karandlaje, seeking forgiveness for her remarks against Tamil people regarding the Bengaluru Rameswaram Cafe blast incident.
It was stated in the affidavit that "the comment that the Tamils were involved in the bomb blast was not made with any intention to hurt the sentiments of the Tamil Nadu people."
Moreover, the affidavit stated that the Union Minister understood that her comment had offended the Tamil people and apologised on social media and that she has great respect for the history, culture and tradition of the Tamils.
The case came up for hearing again today before Judge G. Jayachandran. Chief Public Prosecutor BS Raman said that the Tamil Nadu government would accept her apology on behalf of the people of the state.
Accepting this, the judge ordered to quash the case registered in Madurai against Shobha Karandlaje, who is a Lok Sabha member from Bangalore North constituency.
