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In its four-year tenure from July 2019 to April 2023, the BJP government in Karnataka issued seven separate orders to drop prosecution in 385 criminal cases, including 182 cases of hate speech, cow vigilantism and communal violence, shows a response by the state Home department to an RTI application by The Indian Express.
The seven orders resulting in the withdrawal of 385 cases were issued between February 11, 2020, when B S Yediyurappa was Chief Minister and Basavaraj Bommai the Home Minister, and February 28, 2023, by when Bommai was the CM and Araga Jnanendra the Home Minister.
The RTI response shows that the majority of communal incidents where the state government withdrew from prosecution benefiting over 1,000 accused – about half of the total accused against which cases were withdrawn — including a BJP MP and MLA.
The withdrawal process requires recommendation by the Home Minister, clearance by a state Cabinet sub-committee, and approval of the Cabinet.
The majority of the 182 cases with communal links withdrawn pertain to the Congress government’s tenure between 2013 and 2018.
Incidentally, between 2013 and 2018, the Congress government in Karnataka, under the leadership of Siddaramaiah, had ordered withdrawal of 176 cases against nearly 1,600 activists of the SDPI and now-banned PFI, most of which were linked to violation of prohibitory orders. The BJP had strongly objected to this.
Of the 182 cases with communal links dropped under the BJP government, 45 pertain to violence allegedly by right-wing activists in the Uttara Kannada district in December 2017, following the death of a Hindu youth, Paresh Mesta. It was later found to be an accidental death by the CBI.
The death of Mesta in Honnavar Town had led to rioting and attacks on Muslim establishments and police, with 300 people named in the 45 cases. In one of the cases, 66 faced the charge of attempt to murder.
While the first order of February 11, 2020 withdrawing cases was restricted to those involving farmer protests, in most of the other six orders, at least 50% cases were of communal incidents, the RTI reply shows.
Some of the orders issued between February 2020 and August 2020 pertained to elected representatives like Mysuru BJP MP Prathap Simha and BJP MLA Renukacharya M P.
After the August 31, 2020, government order, PILs were filed in the Karnataka High Court by an advocate and the People’s Union for Civil Liberties against the withdrawals from prosecution. With the HC hearing the matter, there were no orders for withdrawal of cases between 2020 and 2022.
In August 2021, the Supreme Court ordered that “no prosecution against a sitting or former MP/MLA shall be withdrawn without the leave of the High Court”. In July 2022, the Karnataka HC also said that cases cannot be dropped against elected representatives without its clearance.
Overall, the orders for withdrawal of prosecution include four incidents of cow vigilantism in Chikamagalur, several incidents of violence in Kodagu and Mysuru over celebration of Tipu Jayanti, incidents around festive occasions like Rama Navami, Hanuman Jayanti and Ganesh Festival, protests over inter-religious marriages, and conversion.
Another major beneficiary of the withdrawal of cases was senior Hindu Jagaran Vedike leader Jagadish Karanth, who was accused of making hate speeches in Dakshina Kannada, Bagalkot, Bengaluru Rural and Tumkur, with four cases ordered to be dropped on October 1, 2022.
As reported by The Indian Express earlier, the October 1, 2022 order instructed the Department of Prosecution to file necessary applications before the courts concerned for withdrawal of the 34 cases. This, after the state police, the prosecution department and the Law department objected to the withdrawal of each of these 34 cases saying “not a fit case for withdrawal”, according to documents placed before the state Cabinet on September 19, 2022.
Then, on March 20, 2023, a case of hate speech against Sri Rama Sene leader Siddalinga Swami and 11 others for an April 2016 Kalaburagi incident was closed.
Asked about the withdrawal of the cases, Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said recently: “We sit with the Law Department and Police Department and decide in the Cabinet sub-committee the cases that have to be withdrawn.” As Home Minister, he is part of the Cabinet sub-committee.
Jnanendra said that not only right-wing activists, cases were withdrawn against people involved in farmer protests, language protests. “These are mostly cases which have been languishing for up to 10 years or more in courts… All requests for withdrawal come to me and I send the requests to the sub-committee.”
The government order for withdrawal of cases has been implemented in most cases. But there was an exception earlier this month when a civil judge and magistrate in Sirsi in Uttara Kannada ignored a government order of February 28, 2023 to withdraw prosecution against 66 people in the communal violence following Mesta’s case, and committed the case for trial.
The court held that “the offence alleged against the accused person is triable by Hon’ble District and Session Judge”.
