Did police misstep in Hubballi Kar Sevak’s arrest?

HUBBALLI: The arrest of Kar Sevak Srikanth Poojari in a post-Babri Masjid demolition case may have backfired on the Hubballi police. While the police tried to portray that Srikanth Poojari had 16 cases against him, it has been revealed that he was discharged in 15 of the cases and only one was pending against him.

Srikanth Poojari attended the court hearings in all the 15 cases and visited the police station as and when required. He had also secured bail in those cases. Apart from this, the police had also got written undertakings from him in 2004, 2009 and 2018 atfter summoning him to the police station. He had also not gone absconding.

In a curious twist, Srikanth Poojari’s lawyer S M Badaskar said the complaint and the FIR copy in the 1992 case is not available with either the police or the Dharwad court. “There is no FIR copy, then how did the police arrest Srikanth Poojari? This case will not stand legal scrutiny and he will get bail”, the lawyer claimed. Poojari’s bail plea was being heard in court today.

Meanwhile, the family of accused No. 11, late Ashoksa Vittal Baddi, too said that the case may have been reopened deliberately and questioned the motive. They said the police called Ashok’s son Venkatesh on December 8 and sought a copy of the death certificate.

The family members of late Ashoksa Vittal Baddi said they were asked to produce the death certificate.

“When he was alive, Ashok had cordial relations with the police officers and no one had spoken about the pending case. All of a sudden, they now sought the death certificate”, the family members claimed. However, the police claimed that it was just a formality since it was a long-pending case.