‘Delay tactics’: Karnataka High Court denies bail to UAPA accused, flags 190+ applications, changing lawyers

Referring to another strategy adopted by the accused, namely changing advocates continuously and such lawyers seeking adjournments, the court said, “The delay cannot be attributed either to the prosecution or the trial court.”

The order added, “The accused being themselves cause for delay cannot be permitted to reap the benefit of their own mistake on the ground of delay.”

The accused persons, who were members of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), were charged along with 135 more accused under the UAPA and various provisions of the IPC for their alleged roles in the August 11, 2020, violence that targeted the K.G. Halli and D.J. Halli police stations.

The court noted that there were more than 193 bail applications filed by the accused in five years, apart from other applications seeking the use of Instagram accounts, releasing mobile phones, and other reliefs.

Arguments

The accused’s representative, Mohammed Tahir, argued that his clients were falsely implicated in the case and submitted that while the case was initially investigated by the state police, after the National Investigation Agency (NIA) took over the probe, it concocted witness statements and records against the accused.

Tahir also contended that his clients are in judicial custody for five years, and yet the trial has not commenced and is not likely to be concluded in the near future.

On the contrary, the special public prosecutor P Prasanna Kumar, while justifying the reasoning of the trial court regarding the blameworthy conduct of the accused in delaying the matter, placed on record a detailed list of bail applications and other proceedings initiated by the accused before the trial court and the high court to delay the trial.

Background

As per the state, the case stemmed from the accused posting some derogatory messages to insult Hindu Gods and provoke the Hindu community through a Facebook account on Sri Krishna Janmashtami and deliberately tagging P Naveen, nephew of an MLA, to provoke him. The nephew, in return, posted a cartoon picture with a comment on Prophet Mohammed.

This led to a group of people approaching the K.G.Halli police station, who began shouting slogans demanding the arrest of Naveen, and subsequently the group of rioters allegedly set fire to 12 government and private vehicles and damaged property of around Rs 13.62 lakh.

It was also alleged that the mob attempted to snatch weapons from the police personnel and kill them, which led to an order to open fire, resulting in the death of one person.