Neatly stacked copies of Organiser – the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-affiliated magazine – and other spiritual magazines greet us inside the office of Karuna Sagar Kashimshetty in Hyderabad’s Champapet on a humid Saturday noon in January. In the following hour that he spends with this reporter, Karuna Sagar repeats multiple times, “I am a Hindu first and a lawyer later.” That statement is evident in the work that Karuna Sagar has done in the past two decades. Having represented controversial Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders like Raja Singh and Bandi Sanjay in communal riots and hate speech cases, the 43-year-old advocate has emerged as the Telangana BJP’s de-facto legal head. He has been given the moniker of Hindu Tiger by his supporters.
It’s not simply ‘justice for Hindus’ that Karuna Sagar is after though. The legal system has taught Karuna Sagar that the ‘process is the punishment’, and that is what he seems to be aiming for when he goes after his targets. “Having a criminal case will ruin a person’s life. Once you file an FIR, that person is held responsible. Thanks to our judiciary’s disposal system, that offender would need to do the rounds of the court for at least five to six years. They cannot travel to other countries for higher studies, cannot apply for a passport or visa. It will teach them a good lesson,” the lawyer says.
For most, Karuna Sagar’s name might not ring a bell, but if you are on Twitter and regularly follow news events, you are sure to have come across him at some point. Any controversy in any part of the country that is perceived to be offensive to Hindus, by Hindus, and Karuna Sagar, who is a practising lawyer in the Telangana High Court, is likely to have reacted promptly and filed a police complaint against the ‘offenders’. The long list of his targets include DMK MP Kanimozhi, former TRS MP Kalvakuntla Kavitha, former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, hair stylist Jawed Habib, late film critic and actor Mahesh Kathi, journalists Rehana Begum and Swathi Vadlamudi, and artist Durga Malathi.
In 2014, Kalvakuntla Kavitha, former MP of Nizamabad and daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, was booked for sedition for an alleged controversial remark, where she said that the Hyderabad State was forcefully annexed by the Indian Union. This was after Karuna Sagar had filed a complaint at the Madannapet Police Station. Similarly, in 2018, he filed a complaint against Kanimozhi in the Saidabad Police Station for her speech at an atheist conference in which she made critical observations against the Tirumala temple. “They say everyone is equal in front of god but that is a lie. If you give more money and buy a ticket, you get a special darshanam. If not, you stand for 10 hours, 20 hours or two days. That is god,” she had said.
Having gotten noticed through these actions, the advocate has now emerged as a major figure in the BJP in Telangana. At present, Karuna Sagar is handling the high-profile case of party MLA T Raja Singh, who was arrested under the Preventive Detention Act by the Telangana police last year for his remarks against Prophet Mohammed. Raja Singh’s hate speech created a law and order situation in Hyderabad. Karuna Sagar is also handling the cases against BJP Telangana chief Bandi Sanjay, who too has been booked for his communal remarks.
Karuna Sagar was brought up in a ‘nationalistic and patriotic family’, the lawyer tells TNM. “I have been attending the RSS shakha (training centre) since the age of nine. I was not interested in anything else. My passion was to serve my country,” he says. His maternal grandfather B Rangaiah, who according to Karunasagar was a member of the Arya Samaj, had rebelled against the Razakars during the Nizam’s time in erstwhile Hyderabad state, and inspired his family to follow the path of the RSS.
Karuna Sagar served as the Public Relations Officer for the RSS Madannapet division in 2000-2001. At present, he is a central committee member of the Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi, an RSS-affiliated organisation.
He was first noticed by the RSS and the BJP when he filed a hate speech case against controversial leader Akbaruddin Owaisi of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM). In 2012, Owaisi, who was speaking in Nizamabad district, made an inflammatory speech saying, “Twenty-five crores (Muslims) would easily take on 100 crores (Hindus) if police are removed for 15 minutes.”
“I watched the video on YouTube, got someone to translate the speech, and immediately filed a complaint against Owaisi at the Nampally Criminal Court,” Karuna Sagar recalls. This was his first high-profile case. He realised its seriousness when he started receiving threatening calls, he says.
This case brought him close to rabid rabble-rouser Raja Singh, who too wanted to file a complaint against Akbaruddin Owaisi. The duo remained in touch, and by 2022, Karuna Sagar claims to have got Raja Singh acquitted in at least 40 cases. In the case of Bandi Sanjay, Karuna Sagar claims to have got him acquitted in 10 cases since 2020. He has used technical and legal loopholes in most cases to secure these acquittals.
Though Akbaruddin Owaisi was acquitted in the case in 2022, Karuna Sagar has filed an appeal and is pursuing the case in the Telangana High Court. Karuna Sagar has filed numerous cases against both Akbaruddin and his brother and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, levelling several allegations of electoral malpractice and other charges.
His mission to “save Dharma” began in 2004, Karuna Sagar says. On December 1, 2004, Madannapet in Hyderabad witnessed communal riots, in which at least 21 persons were injured in stone pelting. A fight between two religious groups over hoisting their flags resulted in cases against at least 18 persons. “I voluntarily stepped forward and took an oath to defend the Hindu youth who are involved in these types of communal cases.”
In Karuna Sagar’s view, in any communal violence involving Hindus and Muslims, the perpetrators are always the latter while the Hindus are ‘innocent daily wage labourers’ who are falsely implicated. “In most cases, the real perpetrators go scot free and the police arrest someone; they will pick some active people from both the Hindu and the Muslim side for balance. Usually they detain poor daily wage workers who cannot afford legal fees. So I took up the case pro-bono. Since then I am taking up such cases pro-bono,” the advocate says.
Following this, he took up the 2010 Moosabowli communal violence case and the 2012 Saidabad communal violence case. Representing the Hindu side in these cases brought him closer to workers from the Vishva Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal, he recalls. “Since then, people have been referring me to others involved in similar cases,” he says.
Karuna Sagar formed an organisation, the Hindu Sanghatan, in 2012, with him as its sole member. The purpose of the organisation was to provide legal aid to Hindus involved in rioting and communal violence. Through Hindu Sanghatan, he files police complaints against people who make any remark that is perceived on social media to be offensive.
Following the right-wing Modi-led BJP forming the Union government in 2014, Karuna Sagar became vigorously active on social media, closely following politics, and filing cases against anyone who offends the majoritarian sentiment or makes ‘anti-national’ remarks.
In 2018, journalist Swathi Vadlamudi faced the advocate’s wrath for drawing a cartoon. He filed a case against her on charges of outraging religious feelings. In the wake of the alleged gang-rape and murder of an 8-year-old girl in Kathua, Swathi had drawn a cartoon with Hindu gods Rama and Sita, in which Sita is seen telling Ram: “I am so glad I was kidnapped by Ravan and not your Bhakts!”
Though the cartoon was a commentary against BJP legislators and party supporters who rallied in support of the rape accused, Karuna Sagar claims that his religious sentiments were hurt. Similarly, journalist Rehana Begum of Telugu TV channel NTV too faced harassment in 2019 after a case was filed against her for a Facebook post about the situation in Kashmir following the abrogation of Article 370.
Initially, Karuna Sagar voluntarily involved himself in cases, offering legal aid to Hindus involved in communal riots. And after earning a reputation as a lawyer fighting for the Hindutva cause, he was approached by many through social media like Twitter and Facebook, he discloses.
Journalist Swathi, who was a victim of his harassment, recalls the case against her: “Initially, he did not target me. He wanted to harass another journalist who had shared the cartoon, because he was a Muslim.”
Swathi had received a torrent of abuses including death threats for her cartoon. But she stood her ground and did not apologise. She was booked under section 153 of the Indian Penal Code (Wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot). It was a traumatising event for Swathi with a lot of harassment and hostility online. In 2019, a year later, the case was dropped as it lacked merit. “It was not a tenable case. I did not cause any riot. I could be liable for my actions if I had caused a riot. But they filed a case against me under those sections anyway.”
Accusing Karuna Sagar of abusing the law, Swathi says,“There should be some due diligence on the parts of the courts and also the police. They should at least make some investigation and analyse if a particular complaint has any merit before filing a case and harassing an innocent person.” While Swathi is mildly thankful that Karuna Sagar does not take law into his own hands, she says, “But what kind of choice is he leaving? It is either violence or slapping cases.”
Now, Karuna Sagar is encouraging others to file cases and follow the ‘process is punishment’ route as well. “I have prepared a draft. If anyone approaches me, I send them the draft, they just have to fill in minor details like name, etc.” In this manner, 400 complaints were filed against Bairi Naresh in police stations across Telangana, Karuna Sagar reveals. Bairi Naresh, an atheist who follows Ambedkarite ideology, was arrested by the Telangana police on December 31, 2022, for an alleged derogatory speech against the Hindu god Ayyappa.
Growing up in a family of RSS sympathisers, the impact of attending shakas and interacting mostly with RSS followers reflects in his views on any topic. He believes that plastic surgery was first performed in India. India is a Vishwaguru because it is the oldest civilization, according to him. When asked why the ‘oldest civilization’ discriminates against people on the basis of caste, his answer is prompt: “Caste is a British creation.” While the Mughals invaded India, the Britishers waged a different kind of war through false history, he says. He, however, falters when this reporter asks if that is the case, why then in Hindu mythology was Karna humiliated on the basis of his caste, or why Ekalavya was denied training by Dronacharya. Correcting this reporter on the use of the term ‘mythology’ (it’s actual history, he says), Karuna Sagar adds, “Karna was humiliated because he was not a king but a Suta-putra.” he says. Suta-putra means the son of a Shudra.
His unwavering support to the RSS cause is visible in every utterance. But he says that he does not discriminate against other religions, “But they should not offend my religious sentiments by exercising their right to speech or expression. Right to freedom of expression is not absolute.” But the same principle does not seem to apply when he represents Raja Singh, who has hurt the religious sentiments of Muslims with hate speech multiple times. When this reporter points that out, he simply evades the question with “the matter is subjudice.”
Karuna Sagar previously served as the convenor of the Hyderabad BJP legal cell and as Vice President of the Bharatiya Yuva Morcha. If offered an MLA or MP seat, he would readily accept it, he says. “Anything to serve my country and my Hindu Dharma.”