A damaged police vehicle following mob attack in Hubballi (Source: PTI)
On April 20, the Karnataka High Court denied bail to 41 accused in the 2022 Hubballi Riots case where a mob of around 1000 people attacked police personnel at Old Hubballi Police Station in April 2022.
It was reported that the mob went to the police station complaining about a photo of a saffron flag on the dome of a mosque being circulated over social media, claiming it hurt their religious sentiments. After finding out about the post circulating over social media, “Mohammed Arif Razvi, Muktum, Sikkander Makandar, Shabbir Bengaluri, Tajuddin Ballari, Sadik Chajjo, Hajjukhan Dharwad, Mohammed Gouse Khalzi and others formed an unlawful assembly of 1000 to 1500 people by holding lethal weapons such as clubs and stones and gathered in front of the Police Station and raised slogans to take stern action against the accused who hurt their religious sentiments,” the Court noted.
Furthermore, the mob asked the police personnel to arrest the accused who hurt their religious statements. While Inspector AG Chawan tried to reason with the mob, informing that a case has already been registered and proper legal action will be taken, the mob started raising slogans against the police and started obstructing the police. “Further, the mob, with an intention to commit murder 13 of the Police personnel, assaulted with clubs, pelted stones and threw chappals on the police and caused injuries, destroyed the vehicles of Police and Public and Government properties etc,” the Court noted. The case was registered under various provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, after the attack on the police station.
The Court observed, “The video clearly depicts that there was a huge mob in front of the Police Station and the persons in the mob threw stones on the police station, police vehicles and on police officials and in the incident about 20 police personnel suffered internal injuries and 6 police jeeps, one Innova crystal car and one police motorbike were damaged.” Furthermore, the Court observed, “on perusal of the entire material on record including CD and the charge sheet materials, it is clear that the accused persons were involved in heinous offences of creating religious disharmony amongst the society leading to disturbance of public peace and tranquillity and their involvement can be traced out from the CCTV footages, call detail records etc.”
The Court further observed that there is evidence to show that some accused persons forwarded hatred messages on their mobile phones. The accused also forwards messages on WhatsApp groups to gather their community people near the Police station for committing the offence. The Court said, “The Investigating Officer has collected the evidence in the form of statements, videos, CCTV footages and CDRs to show the involvement of the accused persons in the alleged crime.”
The Court said, “A careful examination of the material forming part of the charge sheet clearly depicts that accused persons have gathered on the date of the incident and caused injuries to the Police personnel and damaged Police vehicles, thereby attract the offences against the accused persons under Chapter IV of the UA(P) Act.”
The Court concluded, “Criminal Appeals are dismissed as devoid of any merit. The impugned common order dated 26th December 2022 passed in Spl. CC No.2263/2022 on the file of the XLIX Addl. City Civil and Sessions Judge (Special Court for trial of NIA cases), Bengaluru, rejecting the bail applications of the appellants/accused under the provisions of Section 439 of Code of Criminal Procedure, is hereby confirmed.”
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