After three police personnel were suspended for not serving non-bailable warrants, issued by the JMFC court in Sandur, on Tourism Minister G. Janandhan Reddy, one more such case has come to light.
Non-bailable warrants issued by the Second Additional Civil Judge and JMFC, Bellary, 28 times in connection with a case registered at the Cowl Bazaar police station on April 2, 2007 against 32 persons, including B. Sriramulu, then Minister for Tourism, G. Janardhan Reddy, who was only an MLC then, among others, have not been served by the police till date.
“Due to bandobust and paucity of time to identify all the accused, it was not possible for producing them in court. Hence, requested to grant another opportunity,” was the explanation given in writing by the police for the NBWs not been served.
What is surprising is that the Additional Civil Judge ordered serving of NBWs through the Superintendent of Police on a couple of occasions, which, for reasons not known, was not complied.
It may be recalled that Mr. Sriramulu, Mr. Janardhan Reddy and 30 others were charged with attacking and ransacking the house of Ismail, then president of the Janata Dal (S) city unit, during the dharna outside the Cowl Bazaar police station. They were demanding action against Mr. Ismail, accused of murdering Syed Mujib, former vice-president of the Bellary City Council.
A case was booked against them under sections 143, 147, 148, 448, 427 read with Section 149 of the Indian Penal Code. Right from the first hearing of the case that began on June 5 2008, all the 32 accused neither appeared in court in person nor appointed an advocate to represent their case.
Since then, the judge ordered issue of NBWs to all the 32 accused. The NBWs have been issued 28 times till now, and the latest was on May 31. The case is posted for hearing on July 27.
G. Somashekar Reddy, MLA and chairman of Karnataka Milk Federation, T.H . Suresh Babu, MLA, and Sanna Phakirappa, Raichur MP, are the other prominent accused.
The judge had rejected an application filed by the prosecution under Section 321 of the Cr.PC seeking consent or permission of the court to withdraw the case.
Meanwhile, enquiries revealed that police constables on court duty, following instructions from the Superintendent of Police, have begun collecting information about cases against the Ministers and other politicians that have been pending for long.
