Hubballi: The Court of Judicial Magistrates of First Class (JMFC) has pronounced six months jail term for Kannada vernacular weekly senior jounalist Gauri Lankesh in a defamation case.
In response to the petition filed by the BJP Dharwad MP Prahlad Joshi, the 2nd JMFC court has also slapped a fine of Rs 10000 on Gauri Lankesh.
It was charged that in her weekly dated 23 January 2008, Gauri Lankesh had written derogatory comments against the complainants Prahlad Joshi and a BJP worker named Umesh Dushi. Both had filed separate complaints against her in the court.
After a prolonged verification, JMFC judge D Amar ordered Gauri to pay both the complainants a fine of Rs 5000 each, failing which she will have to serve a jail term of one month.
Gauri Lankesh managed to get the bail soon after the judgment went against her.
Later responding on the issue she said, “These things are common in the field of journalism and I consider it as temporary setback. I will file a review petition in the high court, since there is a provision in the law. Many of my detractors are saddened after I got the bail as most of them thought, I would be put behind bars following the judgment.”
