Case filed against Rahul Gandhi for using 'KGF 2' songs to promote Bharat Jodo Yatra

A case has been filed against Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, for copyright infringement for allegedly using the songs of Yash-starrer KGF 2 in the Bharat Jodo yatra campaign.

While Rahul Gandhi has been named accused number 1, Congress' Jairam Ramesh and Supriya Shrinate are named accused number 2 and 3 respectively. The case filed by MRT Music, a Bengaluru-based music label, said that the illegal synchronising of the sound recording amounts to an offence under Section 63 of the Copyrights Act.

"It is also a serious offence amounting to making a false electronic record with an intention to project the same as genuine and thereby cheating the public at large...It is submitted that such unauthorized uploading and downloading and distribution by the accused has made the complainant to suffer huge losses," MRT Music said.

An FIR has been registered against the party and the three Congress leaders, in particular, under Sections 403, 465, 120, and 34 of the IPC, Section 66 of the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, and under Section 63 of the Copyrights Act, 1957.

"Accordingly, having no other option available, the complainant is hereby filing the present complaint and requests you to take appropriate action in accordance with the law against the accused persons," the complaint said.

This is not the first such incident. In September, Bengaluru-based actor Akhil Iyer accused Congress of using his picture without his consent for the campaign against the Basavaraj Bomai-led government. He had also warned of legal action against the grand old party.

Slamming Congress for copyright infringement, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Amit Malviya said, "After illegally using a picture of Kannada actor Akhil Iyer in their campaign, Congress sued again. This time by MRT Music, which owns the popular music label of KGF2. Congress picked up songs from the movie for Bharat Jodo Yatra without seeking the firm's permission. Stealing everywhere!"