The 31-year-old rioting case that led to the arrest of Hindu activist Srikanth Poojary, a Kar Sevak, once in 1992 and again in 2023 has the ruling Congress and BJP trading barbs at each other in Karnataka, with the saffron party planning a state-wide protest on January 3.
Who is Srikanth Poojary, and what was his involvement in the case registered on December 6, 1992, during the communal clashes in Hubli? To find answers to these questions, News18 spoke to Poojary’s family, police officers who were on duty during the 1992 communal riots, as well as political leaders.
Hardline Hindu Activist
Poojary, belonging to the Somavamsha Sahasrarjun Kshatriya (SSK) Samaj, was a hard-line Hindu activist from a young age, his friends tell News18.
“At the time, he had a small-time business of wholesale distribution of liquor. In the true spirit of Hindutva and being a Kar Sevak, he would always wear saffron colours, shawl, Hindu topi (cap) and a teeka (vermillion mark) on his forehead,” recalled his friend and former mayor of Hubli, Radhabai Sapare.
“The case they had filed against him was of rioting in Hubli and was based on false information. Everything was cleared. We do not know why this has come up again. He has been unjustly arrested. It’s vindictive politics,” she said.
Thirty-one years later, Shrikant is 60 years old and works as an auto driver. With both his hands being operated upon recently due to an accident, he had been confined to his home until December 2023 when he began plying his auto again, she added.
Accused No.3 in ‘92 FIR
Documents with News18 show that Poojary’s arrest in 2023 was based on an ongoing investigation in an arson case.
The first FIR was filed on December 6, 1992, the day the communal riots broke out in Hubli. It was based on a complaint filed by a shop owner, Hajratsab Maliksab Angadi, who had been selling betel nuts and tobacco in the MG market area in the heart of Hubli city. Angadi, in his complaint, claimed that many shops were set on fire and his one was one of them.
“He (Angadi) complained that his shop was set on fire in the wake of the Babri Masjid incident. He had also showed how the rioters attacked various places across the market area,” said another police official who was also stationed in Hubli on December 6 and had been involved in drawing up the charge sheet.
Why now, asks Poojary’s son
Manjunath Poojary, the son of the arrested accused, is seeking legal help to release his father from judicial custody. In an exclusive interview with News18, he said he was in shock when he received a call from his father about the arrest.
“I had no knowledge about the case. I was not even born then. When I questioned my father, he told me that on December 6, 1992, there was a curfew imposed in Hubli (now called Huballi) as there were communal clashes through the night. A friend called him to tell him that his wife was pregnant and needed to be shifted to the hospital,” Manjunath said.
“My father said he reached the place and on his way to the hospital, he had pleaded with the police to allow them to transport the pregnant woman for medical help. That is all that had happened, and he was nowhere near the riots. A case was registered against him, but all investigations had been closed. This is what my father informed me,” he said, quoting his father’s version.
Manjunath said his father had recently returned to driving his auto before being taken into custody by the police on December 29 at around 9.30am.
“He had passengers in the auto. The police waited for them to alight and then asked him to accompany them to the police station. He called me there, and that’s where we were told that he was being arrested in connection with a 1992 rioting case. My father had cleared his name many years ago itself. I do not know why they have raked this up,” Manjunath told News18.
Police officers recall Hubli riots
News18 tracked senior police officers who were on duty on December 6 in Hubli to get a sense of the situation on that day.
GB Chebbi, now a retired IPS officer who was deployed as the Deputy Commissioner, Law and Order, in Hubli, recalled that communal clashes broke out in the area on December 6 and the situation soon turned tense as rioters began to torch shops and attack people.
“The police imposed curfew for a week to bring the situation under control. If I remember correctly, the riots started around Channapet, Kasba Peth, Gandhi Peth, Fareedi Hakal at midnight and continued for days,” said Chebbi.
Another senior police official who was on the scene described how Hubli had become volatile and the commissioner of police himself was standing in the middle of the city with fire trucks to douse the flames from shops that were attacked.
“The perpetrators were spreading out and torching places. Many were arrested and the situation was brought under control after strategically implementing curfew and rounding up the troublemakers,” the official said.
Routine Drive, Says Hubli-Dharwad Police Commissioner
Hubli-Dharwad City Police Commissioner Renuka K Sukumar called the action a routine drive to clear long-pending cases. She also clarified that the investigations were not based on any external factors.
The case was termed a Long Pending Case (LPC) by the police in 2006 and in an effort to clear it, the department had begun investigations and tracking accused who may have absconded or jumped bail.
“The investigations into long-pending cases or LPCs began and we found that Poojary was the one we could categorise under absconding, so he was picked up and arrested,” said the official who did not want to be named.
“We have cracked 37 such cases, and this is one of them. The accused Poojary has now been sent to judicial custody. He was involved in riots in Hubli after the Babri demolition in Ayodhya,” said Sukumar.
Senior police officials agree that the same procedure adopted for long-pending cases has been used in this case as well to dispose it.
Political Slugfest
Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly and Hubli-Dharwad West MLA Arvind Bellad called it a witch-hunt by the Congress. He criticised the ruling party for releasing members belonging to the banned outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) on one hand and targeting Hindu karyakartas on the other.
“A case that is 32 years old, if they are reopening and creating this issue, it shows how malicious their intent is. They are trying to create terror among the karyakartas,” Bellad told News18.
In response to the uproar surrounding Poojary’s arrest, chief minister Siddaramaiah justified it, stating that wrongdoers will not be spared.
“His involvement in the violence after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 in Hubli was found during investigations, and the arrest was not an action that stemmed from vendetta,” Siddaramaiah told the media in Koppal.
“What do you think should be done to offenders? Can they be allowed to go scot-free? We have asked the police department to dispose of old long-pending cases. They have conducted their investigations based on directions of the court and taken action. We are not the ones to resort to hate politics or arrest innocent people,” said the chief minister, justifying the police action.
Political analyst SA Hemanth, meanwhile, said the Congress government is seen as needling Hindu sentiments and activists.
“Look at the timing of reopening of the case; it is significant. The entire world is jubilant and excited for January 22, but it looks like the Congress wants to appease minorities,” he said.
Adding that the Congress was in power between 2013 and 2018, and Siddaramaiah was the chief minister then as well, he asked: “Why did he not clear the backlog of cases then? Why now?”
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