BENGALURU: Facing flak over its move to withdraw cases against those accused in riots in Hubballi in 2022, Karnataka Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara said that the government’s decision is subject to the approval of courts. The government will present its decision before respective courts and cases will be withdrawn only if the courts approve it, otherwise, they will continue, he said.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, the Home Minister said due process has been followed for the withdrawal of cases.
Justifying the government’s decision, Dr Parameshwara said 56 cases came before the cabinet sub-committee. Of them, they decided to withdraw 43. They are not just the cases involving minority communities, but also cases against farmers, students as well as common people involved in protests on different occasions, he added.
The BJP’s allegations could have been accepted if they had decided to withdraw only the Hubballi cases or if all the 43 cases were related to people from the minority community, he said.
The minister said there is a procedure for withdrawing cases if false cases are registered, relevant sections are not invoked and a petition is given alleging that the case registered is different from the nature of the incident.
A cabinet sub-committee headed by the Home Minister sends such petitions to the Home Department to get details about FIR, lapses in collecting evidence, and all details.
A petition regarding the Hubballi case was submitted. It was discussed that there was no need for registering cases against so many people and the cabinet took the decision to withdraw the cases, he said. The minister said many cases were withdrawn when the BJP was in power in the state and it is done in many BJP-ruled states too. Cases against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath were withdrawn by the UP government, he said.
On AICC president Mallikarjuna Kharge’s son and chairman of Siddhartha Trust Rahul Kharge returning 5-acre land to KIADB, Dr Parameshwara said it was done as false allegations were made against them. He said that the BJP is trying to politicise everything.