| The leader of the opposition in Parliament L K Advani and 21 BJP leaders were arrested on Wednesday afternoon for launching satyagraha (peaceful agitation), seeking the withdrawal of cases against former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti and her release from judicial custody.
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| According to city police commissioner S Marisamy, “These are preventive arrests under section 71 of the Karnataka Police Act. They, including Advani have been taken to Sadashivnagar police station. They will be released later in the day, certainly before evening,” Marisamy said.
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| Other party leaders who were arrested include Karnataka unit president Ananth Kumar, opposition leader in the state assembly B S Yediurappa, BJP spokesperson Muktha Abbas Naqvi, and party leader from Gujarat Kanshiram Rana.
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| Soon after Advani and 21 others were whisked away in a police van from the Town Hall where the week-long satyagraha was launched, hundreds of BJP workers and supporters were also taken into custody and ferried to different police stations in the city for detention.
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| These included about 20 MPs and 90 MLAs from Gujarat and party leaders from Chandigarh, Bangalore rural and Kolar districts in Karnataka.
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| “Though the BJP had informed the state government and took our permission to organise the satyagraha at Town Hall, we have taken them into custody for disrupting public order and staging dharna (sit-in demonstration),” Marisamy said.
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| BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu, who too shared the dais along with Advani and others at the satyagraha, was left out of the police net.
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| Condemning the arrests, Naidu lashed out at the Karnataka government for precipitating the situation and said state chief minister N Dharam Singh was under pressure from the Congress high command to take such anti-national steps.
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| The Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) at Hubli has posted the criminal cases against former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti for orders on September 4, 2004. The satyagraha has been launched against the prosecution of Uma Bharti.
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| JMFC judge Mohammed Ismail, who heard the submission of the public prosecutor earlier in the day and adjourned the case till 3 pm, deferred the orders since the latter failed to submit the application in writing, as directed by the Karnataka High Court on Monday.
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| In fact, assistant public prosecutor (APP) S Nagendra sought a week’s time from the JMFC to file the application in writing along with a report to include the reasons and comments as sought by the court. Justice Ismail declined to grant time and directed the prosecutor to file the application latest by Saturday (September 4, 2004) and orders thereof.
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| The APP, however, sought a certified copy of the lower court order so as to challenge his decision in the higher (sessions) court. As a result of the stalemate in the JMFC, Bharti will continue to be lodged in the make-shift prison at the guest house of the University Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Dharwad, about 20km from Hubli.
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| Bharti is under a 14-day remand under judicial custody. |
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