– Mohammed Atherulla Shariff
Bengaluru, Feb. 19: Karnataka High Court granted bail to 106 persons in Hubballi riot case on Friday. The division bench comprising Justice Srinivas Harishkumar and Justice Venkataesh passed the judgement.
“The counsel for the respondent state though vehemently opposed the petitions, the bench declared that ‘taking into consideration the facts and circumstances of the cases and particularly the period of incarceration undergone by the petitioners, we are inclined to grant bail.
“The petitioners are directed to be released on bail in connection with crime No.0063/2022 registered at old Hubbali police station, to the satisfaction of the Trial Court.”
A 15-member team of advocates led by senior advocate Sanjay R Hegde comprised of Adeel Ahmed, Rahmathulla Kothwal, Aisha Siddika, Sharukh Ali and others appeared for the petitioners.
Violence erupted on April 16, 2022 in Hubballi city in Karnataka over a provocative WhatsApp message in which a photo-shopped picture of a religious flag was seen hoisted atop a mosque.
The police arrested 152 persons in connection with the violence and 12 cases were lodged against them. It was the time when there was a BJP government in the State.
Earlier Supreme Court had granted bail for 35 persons while some minor boys who were detained in this connection were also granted bail. Three persons are still in jail. The accused were lodged in Belgavi, Gulbarga and Bellary jails.
Of the 12 cases, seven FIRs, now clubbed together, were registered by police. The rest 5 cases were registered by civilians.
In Anand Nagar, one of the Muslim-majority areas in the northern part of Hubballi, almost every lane has a story of a man or two having been arrested in this riot case. Every house has a story of despair and injustice. Men were also picked up from other Muslim pockets of Ajmer Nagar, Asar Mohalla, Bantikatta, Mantur Road and the Old Hubballi region.
How it all happened
It was the month of Ramadan. Most Muslim residents of Hubballi would invariably come to the Badi Masjid, right opposite the Old Hubballi police station, to offer namaz. This magnificent Masjid, sharing the premises with Hazrat Fateh Shah Dargah, can hold over a thousand devotees at a time.
Just minutes before the men had converged at the Masjid to offer Isha prayer, one Hindu youth, identified as Abhishek Hiremath, had posted a highly objectionable photo as his WhatsApp status. “The post basically had a morphed picture of a saffron flag over the holy Medina. And it had the desired impact that Hiremath had aimed for,” Asif Bankapur, editor of a local news channel Swaraj Times, shared.
Hiremath, under pressure, eventually took the post down. But by then, the screengrabs of the post had already been shared on different WhatsApp groups and the atmosphere of the city had turned tense. As men from Badi Masjid slowly stepped out after offering prayers, their phones too were abuzz with messages. The messages also mentioned that Hiremath had already been arrested and brought to the Old Hubballi police station.
Several Muslim youths, enraged by the act, stormed the police station and began sloganeering. The response was spontaneous. Men demanded that Hiremath be handed over to them. Some pelted stones at the police station, which was by then barricaded and its gate locked to keep the furious mob outside. A vehicle was torched nearby and two policemen suffered minor injuries in the stone pelting. What was registered as a case of riot, within days, was turned into an “act of terror”. The WhatsApp groups – Lion Lifter Fitness Gym, Islamic Sultan Group and Hubli Goodshed King – which many of those accused were a part of, were termed as “terror outfits” by the police. While Lion Lifter Fitness is a local gym in the city, Goods Shed is the name of a road close to the police station.
A few weeks after the arrest, the police invoked UAPA sections, and assigned the case to a special NIA court in Bengaluru, around 450 kilometres away. Meanwhile, Hiremath, who was the primary trigger for the rioting incident, was released on bail a few months later. Hiremath, who was not associated with any political outfit at the time of his arrest, has now joined the radical Hindutva outfit Ram Sene, according to locals.
After keeping them in their custody, the police sent the Muslim men to jails several hundred kilometers away from their homes, making it nearly impossible for their families to pay a visit. For court hearings too, they are only produced through video conferencing.
Almost all of them, aged between 18 and 25 years, were sole earning members of their respective families. These men, mostly school dropouts, either worked as autorickshaw drivers, masons, or electricians. Their daily wages ran their households and with their incarceration, most have since broken down.
The apex body of Muslims in Huballi, Anjuman-e-Islam and many prominent leaders and philanthropists made a combined effort in procuring bail for the youths and taking care of other needs of their families all through. (with some inputs from The Wire web portal)
