Karnataka govt withdraws 23 cases against Christians

Heeding to the repeated appeal of the Church, the Karnataka government on Thursday withdrew over two dozen cases registered against Christians who protested attacks on churches in 2008.

The state cabinet on Dec. 1 decided to withdraw some 23 cases, positively responding to the appeal of several church bodies across the state.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sureshkumar told media that the decision was taken after requests from Christian organisations in Karnataka and the Diocese of Mangalore.

Last month, about 12 bishops from across the state met the Karnataka Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda and had appealled for withdrawing cases wrongly registered against Christians during the 2008 violence.

The bishops were led by Archbishop of Bangalore Rev Bernard Moras who called for the immediate withdrawal of the cases.

Over 150 Christian youths were made to suffer due to the continuous court proceedings. Several of them were also being harassed by police investigations, Moras had said.

According to the Christian groups, some 267 cases had been filed against Christian priests and pastors following the violence in 2008.

The former judge of the Karnataka High Court, Justice Michael Saldanha, recently pointed that 267 cases filed against persons from religious majority groups were withdrawn because they were found to be politically motivated, but the government is yet to do so with cases filed against Christian youths.

Several Catholic and Protestant churches were attacked by Hindutva extremists in Dakshina Kannada district, Udupi and few adjoin districts in September 2008.

The one-man Commission headed by Justice BK Somashekhar appointed to probe the attack on churches, however, absolved the BJP and Sangh Parivar of all blame. Interestingly, the Commission in its interim report had held Bajrang Dal and Sri Rama Sene responsible for the attacks.

Christians rejected the "one-sided and biased" report and called for a fresh probe.