Author: PTI
Publication: The Hindu
Date: August 31, 2004
URL: http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/holnus/001200408301715.htm
In a surprise U-turn, the Karnataka
government today told the High Court that it stood by a two-year-old Cabinet
decision dropping charges against former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister
Uma Bharti, against whom it had sought reopening of the rioting case in
May last in a Hubli court.
After the hype and hoopla last week
over the non-bailable arrest warrant issued against her capped by a police
team setting out to Bhopal to arrest her, Advocate General B T Parthasarathy,
appeared before a Bench, headed by the Chief Justice, N K Jain, and said
"there is no political vendetta against Bharti".
The Government stood by the Cabinet
decision of 2002 withdrawing all charges against Bharti and others, he
said.
Bharti, who resigned as Chief Minister
last Monday to appear before the Court in Hubli, faced charges in a case
of rioting in which five people were killed in police firing when she defied
prohibitory orders to hoist the national flag at the Idgah maidan on Independence
Day in 1994.
