Hindutva activist Srikant Pujari walks out of jail after getting bail in Ram temple agitation case
Hubballi (K'taka), Jan 6: Hindutva activist Srikant Pujari, who was arrested for participating in the Ram temple agitation over three decades ago, was released on bail here on Saturday.
Soon after coming out of jail, he asserted that he had fought for Ram temple in Ayodhya and would go there again.
Police said they had picked up Pujari in December, 2023, in connection with the disposal of pending cases. It turned out that the accused had participated in the Ram temple agitation in 1992.
Police, however, maintained that there were 16 cases pending against him including bootlegging and that he was designated as 'rowdy' in two police stations.
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Soon after his release from jail, Pujari expressed his gratitude to the Hindu organisations, which fought for his release.
"Thirty-one years ago I fought for the Ram temple in Ayodhya. I will go there again," Pujari told reporters.
According to him, the policemen who came to arrest him said that they wanted to take him to the market.
"The policemen did not give me any warrant or summons. They just picked me up and put me in the lock-up," Pujari said.
When asked if he was arrested intentionally by the Congress government ahead of the Ram temple inauguration on January 22, he said, "I don't know all that. They (police) just called me to the market and arrested (me)."
He dismissed the allegations that there were many pending cases against him.
"There were no cases against me. I got all of them cleared one after the other. That's why I returned from Belagavi," Pujari said.
Responding to a question, the Hindutva activist said he was in jail for eight months in 1992.
The BJP had made his arrest an issue and staged demonstrations across the state. It also launched a campaign called 'I'm a Kar Sevak. Arrest Me Too.'
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah lashed out at the BJP, saying leaders of the opposition party need to understand that assigning caste and religious labels to criminals is extremely dangerous.
"If any BJP leaders have a little wisdom, they should please read out the list of charges against this person from Hubballi and then decide whether to fight for him. Since Hindus are the majority in the population, they are also the majority in prisons. Does that mean BJP should fight for all of them because they belong to the Hindu religion," Siddaramaiah had asked.
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UP: Misled by GPS navigation, car falls into river from partially constructed bridge, 3 dead
Bareilly (UP), Nov 24: Three people died when their car fell into the Ramganga river from a partially constructed bridge here on Sunday, police said, adding that they suspect the driver was misled by its navigation system into taking the unsafe route.
The accident occurred around 10 am on the Khalpur-Dataganj road when the victims were travelling from Bareilly to Dataganj in the Badaun district, they said.
"Earlier this year, floods had caused the front portion of the bridge to collapse into the river, but this change had not been updated in the system," Circle Officer Ashutosh Shivam said.
The driver was using a navigation system and did not realise that the bridge was unsafe, driving the car off the damaged section, the police said.
There were no safety barriers or warning signs on the approach to the damaged bridge, leading to the fatal accident, Shivam said.
Upon receiving information, police teams from Faridpur, Bareilly and Dataganj police station rushed to the spot. They recovered the vehicle and the bodies from the river, Shivam added.
The circle officer said that bodies had been sent for post-mortem. Further investigation into the matter is underway.
— Bareilly Police (@bareillypolice) November 24, 2024
