Twitter asked to block handles of Cong, Bharat Jodo Yatra over copyright violation

A Bengaluru court on Monday directed Twitter to temporarily block the accounts of the Congress party and the Bharat Jodo Yatra for allegedly infringing the statutory copyright owned by MRT Music by illegally using sound records of the film ‘KGF Chapter-2’.

The complaint was registered on Friday by MRT music and an FIR was lodged against Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh and Supriya Shrinate at the Yeshwanthpur police station under the provisions of the Copyright Act, the Information Technology Act and the Indian Penal Code (IPC) .

The complaint was lodged by M Naveen Kumar, who manages MRT music, alleging that Ramesh had on his official Twitter handle posted two videos of the yatra, in which popular songs from KGF-2 film were used without permission.

“The said videos were made using the popular sound recordings owned and held by the complainant. The said sound recordings are that of the cinematographic film “KGF Chapter 2” (Hindi version) which is popular globally,” Kumar said, according to a PTI report.

The Rahul Gandhi-headlined Bharat Jodo Yatra began from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu on September 7 and is expected to reach Jammu on January 30, 2023.

The march has so far covered five southern states, namely Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It will traverse through different states in this course.