Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah defends Cabinet decision to withdraw cases booked against rioters; BJP calls it appeasement politics

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday defended the recent Cabinet decision to withdraw the criminal cases the Police had registered against a group of minority community members for mobbing a police station in Old Hubballi and allegedly indulging in violence enraged over a social media post.

The mob, while protesting against a content posted on social media, gathered in front of the Old Hubballi town police station on April 16, 2022 and urged the police to hand over the accused to them. The policemen’s attempts to pacify them were in vain.

When they started pelting stones injuring many policemen as well as their vehicles, the police booked them under various sections of the IPC, charging them with rioting, attempted murder, damaging government property as well as Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,1967.


This was one of the 43 cases the Cabinet decided to withdraw last week. The government response, according to sources, came on a request from Anjuman-e-Islam to Home Minister G Parameshwara.

In a chat with the media at Hubbali airport, the CM maintained that the Cabinet decision followed vetting of specific cases by a cabinet sub-committee chaired by the Home Minister. The decision was, however, subject to the courts accepting it.

The BJP workers staged a protest in Hubballi on Sunday, waving black flags at the CM’s entourage to protest the Cabinet’s decision.

APPEASEMENT POLITICS
Union Consumer Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and Haveri-Gadag MP Basavaraj Bommai have slammed the government’s decision and termed it as an act of appeasement politics by the Congress to please the members of a minority community.

Bommai told the media in Hubballi on Sunday that the attack on the police station amounted to an attack on the state. It is a serious case being investigated by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and a charge sheet has already been filed. The state government does not have the authority to withdraw a case registered under UAPA and handed to the NIA.