Supreme Court rejects bail plea of accused in Bengaluru Riots case 2020
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere in the Karnataka High Court’s order of upholding the dismissal of bail application of a bunch of accused in the Bengaluru Riots case of 2020. The SC was hearing the Special Leave Petition (SLP) filed by the accused assailing the Karnataka High Court order upholding the dismissal of the bail application by a Special Court.
Hearing the petition, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Vikram Nath expressed their disinclination to interfere in the impugned order and dismissed the petition.
Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra who appeared for the accused Mohammed Kaleem submitted that Kaleem was a 68-year-old engineer who had spent 14 months in custody and his name was not mentioned in the FIR. Luthra referred to the SC’s judgment in the Kartar Singh case and added that no charge-sheet was filed in the case so far.
Appearing for 5 accused(s) (Shaikh Muhammed Bilal, Syed Asif, Mohammed Atif, Naqeeb Pasha, and Syed Ikramuddin), Advocate Gaurav Agrawal submitted that the investigation against the accused was complete and they were in custody for the last 16 months.
The Bench however said at this juncture it was disinclined to interfere in the matter.
Earlier, the Karnataka HC had dismissed their bail applications challenging the order of the Special Court. The HC had dismissed the applications on the ground that the allegations made against the accused are serious in nature and the overt acts committed by each of them prima facie indicate that they form terrorist acts as defined under Sections 15 and 20 of UAPA Act.
While dismissing the appeal filed by a bunch of accused seeking bail in the Bengaluru Riots case of 2020, the bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Pradeep Singh Yerur had observed that if an act is likely to strike terror, then the absence of an intent to strike terror will not make the invocation of section 15 of the Unlawful Activities Prevent Act unjustifiable.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
