Bengaluru court restrains media and technology platforms from spreading defamatory videos on Siddaramaiah

A civil court in Bengaluru on Tuesday issued an ad-interim ex-parte interim injunction restraining the further circulation of two television videos on two private YouTube channels allegedly making defamatory remarks against former chief minister Siddaramaiah.

The interim order bans 42 media houses, including newspapers, TV channels, digital platforms like YouTube, Yahoo, Google and Facebook, from disseminating the impugned videos, their subtitles, clips, excerpts or substantially identical versions through any medium.

B. Pushpanjali, Judge of the 19th Additional City Civil and Sessions Court, Bengaluru, issued the preliminary injunction on the plea filed by Mr. Siddaramaiah.

In addition, the court directed YouTube, Yahoo, Google and Facebook to immediately ban access and block the specified URLs of two videos broadcast on YouTube channels on 27 September 2026 titled “Karnataka Honey Trap Nexus Part-1” and on 2 October 2026 titled “Live: Biggest CD Blast in Karnata?”.

In the plea, Mr. Siddaramaiah categorically denied all the allegations made in the two videos. In one of the videos, the woman recounts an incident from 2011, allegedly when she was 14, and connects it to a conversation with two men “the recording of which was supposed to resemble a secret or hidden camera recording,” the suit said.

The caption goes on to say that it is “deliberately crafted to place the accuser at the center of a sensational political and sexual narrative,” without any material.

The plea pointed out that the caption of the video linked the alleged recording of the interview as the reason for his resignation as chief minister, the alleged extortion, the alleged network of honey traps, the current chief minister, statements by other political leaders, the Congress high command and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi.

“…The attempt to retroactively link the political transformation to the alleged secretly recorded conversation is false, baseless and designed to damage Mr. Siddaramaiah’s reputation and political standing,” the suit alleges.

Since Mr. Siddaramaiah had questioned the authenticity, credibility and intent of the videos, the court noted that allowing them to be circulated at this stage could seriously damage his dignity, reputation and privacy. It noted that unless media houses prevent the broadcasting or sharing of videos or their clips, the resulting damage would be irreparable.

Published – 13 Oct 2026 20:47 IST