Ayodhya: Probe into Hindu activists' violence during Mandir movement
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Bengaluru: Karnataka Police started investigating cases of destruction and violence in the Ram Mandir movement of 1992. It was when the Mandir Ayodhya was about to be consecrated that the state police decided to open cases more than three decades old, IANS reported.
During the notorious Ram Mandir movement in 1992, pro-activists allegedly wreaked havoc, destroyed properties, etc., which are some of the cases under scrutiny.
Sources further explained that the police department had formed a special team and prepared a list of accused persons who were involved in police cases during the 1992 Ram Mandir movement, which resulted in violence and communal clashes.
Hubballi police arrested Srikanth Poojari in connection with an alleged case of torching a shop owned by a minority on December 5, 1992, in Hubballi. Poojari is the third accused in the case, and the police are looking out for the other eight accused in connection with the case. 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 explained that the accused are in their early and late 70s now, and many of them have left the city.
Many of the accused are now in important positions, and police are also considering the consequences of legal action against them. 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. 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 moves 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.
