Even as a major political storm has hit Karnataka over the arrest of Hindu activist Shrikant Poojary ahead of the Ram Mandir inauguration on January 22, more details have emerged showing several other cases registered against him for rioting in the aftermath of Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.
The list prepared by the police shows Poojary has been booked in 16 cases in the last 31 years.
The first case was booked in 1992 at Hubbali town Police station for rioting and other offences under Section 143, 147, 436, 427 of IPC.
Apart from that, a total of 11 cases have been registered at the old Hubbali Police Station between 1998 and 2014. In eight out of the 11 cases, Poojary has been booked for illegal sale of liquor.
In the same police station, he has been booked for rioting, causing hurt, and other charges in three different cases in 1999, 2001 and 2014. He has also been booked for illegal gambling.
He also has one case of illegal sale of liquor registered in Vidyanagar police station. While three cases have been registered at Kasabapet police station in 2004, 2009 and 2018 under CRPC section 107 as “precautionary cases”.
Justifying the arrest, Hubbali-Dharwad police commissioner Renuka Sukumar called it a “regular exercise” to deal with long pending cases. “In many cases, the accused go absconding. From time to time, it is a routine police procedure that in such cases, we make the effort to trace the accused. In one such case of riot, which was reported in 1992, we apprehended an accused. For us, it is just another riot case,” Sukumar said.
The commissioner also said in the 1992 rioting case, out of the total 13 accused, nine were arrested and three died while Poojary absconded and never got arrested. He did not secure any bail or appeared before the court. In 2006, the case was designated as long pending case by the court.
This case is part of the 37 pending cases including cybercrime, narcotics that the Hubbali-Dhaward police are working at present.
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