Bengaluru: The High Court of Karnataka set aside an order issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in December 2016 asking the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to take over the investigation into the murder of a RSS worker on October 16, 2016.
A single-judge bench of the high court Justice John Michael Cunha set aside the order where the MHA – on its own and without the consent of the state of Karnataka – had ordered the NIA to take over investigations into the murder of the RSS leader R Rudresh.
The MHA’s order directing the NIA to take over the murder probe and the decision of the Bengaluru police to invoke provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act of 1967 in the murder case had been challenged in the court by Asim Shariff, a leader of the socio-political outfit the Popular Front of India and four others arrested by the Bengaluru police in the case.
The Bengaluru district president of the PFI Asim Shariff, 40, and others arrested in the case had argued that the MHA had not followed procedures while by-passing the state of Karnataka and ordering an NIA investigation in the Rudresh murder case. The MHA had argued that it enjoys the powers to issue suo motu orders for takeover of a case in which the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act is invoked.
While setting aside the NIA probe in the Rudresh murder case, the Karnataka High Court has not found fault with invoking of the UAPA law in the case by the Bengaluru police. The judge after setting aside the December 2016 MHA order for an NIA probe in the case also kept Tuesday’s order in suspension for a week following a request by the MHA for time to approach a higher court. The judge while keeping the order in suspension has stated that neither the NIA or the Bengaluru police should investigate the case in the intervening period.
RSS secretary R Rudresh, 37, was hacked to death on the Kamaraj Road in the heart of Bengaluru by two motorcycle borne men on the morning of October 16.
