Karnataka police takes action to clear old, pending criminal cases

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Karnataka Police arrested 200 people in the last six months as part of efforts to reduce the number of long-pending cases before criminal courts in the state.

As per the sources, the arrested individuals had open warrants issued for their arrest several years ago.

Last month, the arrest of a BJP worker in a longpending case in Dharwad – linked to the violence following the demolition of the Babri Masjid – had resulted in protests by the BJP.

According to the police, the BJP worker Srikant Pujari, 60, was among 36 people arrested in 2023 in long-pending cases of various types, including rioting, thefts, gambling and accidents, in the Hubbali-Dharwad region.

Pujari was among 13 people named in a rioting case in December 1992 and had not been brought to trial, leading to his arrest on December 28, 2023.

The BJP, however, accused the Congress government in Karnataka of targeting its workers.

Similarly, on January 8, 2024, the police in the Tumakuru region of Karnataka arrested five people in a 19-year-old case pertaining to a Naxal attack on a police outpost in the Venkatamanhalli village on February 10, 2005 which resulted in the death of eight people.

The five arrested were among 42 who were missing and were not brought to trial even after local courts acquitted 29 accused in the case in the initial set of trials.

Bengaluru Police

Meanwhile the Bengaluru police reported this month that in 2023 it had arrested people who were not brought to trial despite warrants being issued by the courts in 99 long-pending cases.

A senior official said that the efforts to clear longpending cases from police and court files have been stepped up in recent years which has helped reduce the pendency of cases.

"This is important in criminal cases because the accused are absconding and there is an open warrant from the court for their arrest which is several years old," the official added.

Number of pending criminal cases

According to the report, Karnataka currently has a total of 10.14 lakh pending criminal cases with 10 longpending ones that are more than 30 years old, 887 cases that date back between 20 and 30 years (0.9%), 26,703 cases that are 10 to 20 years old (2.63%) and 1.64 lakh cases that are five to 10 years old (16.22%), as per data from the National Judicial Data Grid.