A court in Bengaluru Rural has ordered a three-month jail term for Managing Director of Kannada news channel Power TV in civil prison for wilfully violating a court injunction that barred the channel from airing defamatory content against senior IPS officer BR Ravikanthe Gowda.
In an order passed on January 6, the Principal Senior Civil Judge of Bengaluru Rural district, Abdul Saleem, held that Power TV, operated by Power Smart Media Private Limited and represented by its Managing Director Rakesh Sanjeev Shetty, had deliberately disobeyed an interim injunction issued on September 8, 2023.
A person committed to civil prison will be housed separately and allowed more freedom of movement than people remanded to jail for criminal offences.
The injunction restrained the channel and others from broadcasting, publishing or circulating any content that was defamatory, unverified or that harmed the reputation of Ravikanthe Gowda.
The court noted that Shetty was aware of the injunction as his lawyers represented him in court. Despite this, Power TV continued to air promos and programmes in September 2023 portraying the IPS officer in a derogatory manner. These included references to him as “Dushta IPS Adhikari” (wicked IPS officer).
The court ruled that the respondent had committed a wilful breach of the injunction under Order 39 Rule 2A read with Section 151 of the Civil Procedure Code. It directed that the Managing Director be detained in civil prison for three months, and directed the IPS officer to deposit subsistence allowance fixed by the State government.
The matter has been posted to January 31, 2026, for deposit of the allowance.
Ravikanthe Gowda had filed the original civil suit seeking a permanent injunction, an unconditional apology and Rs 20 lakh in damages for defamation. That suit is still pending, while the January 6 order deals specifically with the violation of the interim gag order.
Power TV has run into legal troubles before.
The Karnataka High Court had issued an interim order in June 2024, directing the channel to stop broadcasting as it did not have the requisite licence from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to transmit news. Following this, the channel stopped news transmissions and began displaying a blank screen with the message “Satyameva Jayate” (Truth Will Prevail).
This order stemmed from separate petitions filed by JD(S) leader Ramesh Gowda and IPS officer BR Ravikanthe Gowda.
However, Shetty approached the Supreme Court which held that there was a “sheer political vendetta” against the channel as it had broadcast content about the allegations against Prajwal Revanna.
“He (channel) wanted to broadcast a sex scandal and the idea was to stop him from doing so. The idea is to completely blank out his voice. This is a sheer political vendetta and nothing else. And this court will be failing in its duty if it doesn’t allow him to exercise his rights,” the SC bench observed.