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.
This story was originally published in thenewsminute.com. Read the full story here
