The Hindu

Bangalore, Jul 25: Home Minister V.S. Acharya on Friday defended the Government’s action of withdrawing criminal cases against Reddy brothers by maintaining that all those cases were “politically motivated.”

Accusing the Opposition parties of trying to politicise the episode of withdrawal of criminal cases, he said: “Sitting in a glass house, Opposition parties are trying to throw stones at the Government.”

Replying to a discussion initiated by Janata Dal (Secular) leader M.C. Nanaiah in the Legislative Council during which the Opposition members vehemently opposed the withdrawal of criminal cases against the Ministers from Bellary, Dr. Acharya cautioned the Opposition parties that their criticism at the withdrawal of criminal cases would boomerang on themselves.

Charging the Opposition parties with filing politically motivated cases against Reddy brothers when they were in power, he said it was not proper to criticise the withdrawal of such cases.

Dr. Acharya said the cases recently withdrawn by the State Cabinet included 10 cases filed against B. Sriramulu (presently Minister) and others during the Assembly elections in 2008 and Bellary City Corporation polls in 2007.

Terming these cases as “politically motivated”, Dr. Acharya said: “After winning the elections, it is not appropriate to continue the “politically motivated” cases filed by the Opposition parties during the elections out of fear of losing them.”

He asserted that politically motivated charges and cases had to be tackled politically.

Referring to the case filed in Bellary Rural Police Station in 2006 against G. Janardhana Reddy and Mr. Sriramulu for allegedly demolishing the Sunkalamma temple, he said the Bellary district court had ruled in favour of Mr. Reddy by maintaining that the issue did not come under the jurisdiction of Karnataka police.

Despite this, an appeal against the district court’s ruling had been filed before the Karnataka High Court in the previous Government.

Referring to another case filed against Mr. Reddy, Mr. Sriramulu and 30 others in Bellary’s Cowl Bazaar police station in 2007, he said such a case had been filed for political reasons when they were staging a protesting demanding arrest of those responsible for the murder of a councillor.

He said withdrawal of criminal cases had been done by the successive governments for decades. While the BJP Government had withdrawn 65 such cases so far, 955 cases had been withdrawn in the State from 2001 to 2008. In fact, 423 cases had been withdrawn in 2005 when N. Dharam Singh was Chief Minister and 294 cases had been withdrawn in 2007 when H.D. Kumaraswamy was the Chief Minister, he said.

He said his Government had withdrawn cases recommended by Opposition leaders, including 17 cases recommended by Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah, one case each recommended by Congress leaders Prakash Hukkeri, T.B. Jayachandra and K. Amarnath Shetty in addition to cases requested by Samata Sainik Dal and farmers’ leader Kurubur Shanathakumar.

Walkout

The Opposition members staged a walkout when the Government turned down their request for reversing the decision on withdrawal of cases.

They declared that they would take up the issue before the Election Commission and launch a legal fight.

They said there were no instances of the cases related to poll code violation being withdrawn by the governments earlier.