Pratap Simha

Mangaluru: A complaint has been lodged against Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha for having allegedly threatened a Mangaluru-based journalist.

The complaint has been lodged at Kadri police station here by journalist Shreyas, resident of Boluvar in Puttur taluk, currently working for a city-based news portal.

With regard to the 2002 hit-and-run case, in which noted cine actor Salman Khan was convicted of culpable homicide among other charges by the sessions court on Wednesday, the columnist-turned-politician Pratap Simha had uploaded a post on his Facebook timeline in support of the actor who’s contribution to the industry and needy “outweighed his unintentional but terrible mistake.”

In the post, he also batted for introduction of the proposed Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2014 to put stringent traffic norms into place.

The complainant Shreyas said that he had conversed with the MP in this regard and sought his statement over a phone call. He had also made a news report on the subject quoting the MP, which was published in the news portal he worked for. He had also quoted a few critics of Pratap Simha.

However, on learning of the news article, MP Pratap Simha is alleged to have threatened the journalist and also used filthy language over phone.

In this regard, a complaint was lodged by the journalist on Friday, and an FIR was registered by Kadri police subsequently on Saturday morning.

Memorandum

On Saturday, a delegation of mediapersons, including the complainant, submitted a memorandum to Dakshina Kannada Additional Deputy Commissioner demanding appropriate legal action against the Mysore-Kodagu MP for his misbehaviour and life-threat to a journalist.

A similar memorandum was submitted by the delegation to Mangaluru City Police Commissioner on Saturday.