The Hindu : Karnataka News : It's up to Uma Bharti, says Dharam Singh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 01, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

It's up to Uma Bharti, says Dharam Singh

By Our Special Correspondent

BANGALORE, AUG. 31. The Chief Minister, N. Dharam Singh, asserted today that there was no question of the State Government doing a "U" turn on its stand on the withdrawal of prosecution against the former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Uma Bharti, in the 1994 Hubli Idgah Maidan case.

Addressing presspersons after a meeting with his Cabinet colleagues and officials, Mr. Singh said: "The High Court has neither given any direction to the State Government nor has the Government given any undertaking for fresh withdrawal of the case."

In a three-page statement, the Chief Minister said that the Government had nothing to do with the case and that it was for Ms. Bharti to take the appropriate steps to seek relief from the High Court. The judges themselves had made such an observation and Ms. Bharti's counsel had undertaken to file a petition under Section 482 of the Cr. PC, seeking quashing of the proceedings before the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC).

No directive

Going by the observations of the High Court, it was for the assistant public prosecutor (APP) to act as an officer of the Court. The question of the Government issuing any further direction to the public prosecutor in the case before the JMFC did not arise.

Mr. Singh said that the Krishna Government decided to withdraw the prosecution in January 2002, but the Magistrate did not give his assent to it. His Government had repeatedly said that the previous administration's decision withdrawing the case stood and that there was no change in the Government's stand against reopening the case. The advocate for Ms. Bharti had admitted unequivocally before the High Court that she appeared before the magistrate on her own and that the police had not arrested her.

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