Karnataka Police has reopened old cases against Ram Manidir activists who allegedly indulged in vandalising properties and other offences during the peak of the Mandir movement in 1992. This comes as the Pran Pratishtha ceremony of the under-construction Ram Mandir is set to take place on January 22.
The news agency IANS reported, quoting Sources, that the police set up a special team and prepared a list of people involved in cases during the 1992 Ram Mandir movement, which caused violence and communal clashes.
Initiating the action, the first arrest was made by Hubballi Police in one such case which arrested Srikanth Poojari, an accused in a case of torching a shop owned by a minority on December 5, 1992. While Poojari is the third accused in the case, a search for eight other accused is underway in the case.
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Poojari had been sent to judicial custody. Likewise, Hubballi police prepared a list of 300 accused persons who were allegedly wanted in communal clashes that took place between 1992 and 1996.
The police sources explain that the accused are in their early and late 70's now and many of them have gone away from the city. Many of the accused are now in important positions and police are also considering the consequence of legal action against them.
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The Congress government has allegedly directed the police department to take up the cases for investigation in this regard. Many individuals in the Ram Janma Bhoomi movement are now prominent BJP leaders and when BJP was in power, the cases against prominent leaders were dropped, sources said. Hindu organisations have expressed outrage against the move of the Congress government.
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They have charged that as BJP and Hindu organisations have taken up door-to-door campaigning in the backdrop of the inauguration of Sri Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, the Congress government not able to tolerate the campaigning is resorting to such move to initiate action on cases reported three decades ago. The development is likely to stir a major controversy in the state. Karnataka witnessed major violence during the Ram Janmabhoomi Rath Yatra movement launched by veteran BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani in the 1990s.
(With agency inputs)