Tuesday, August 16 2005 19:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Hubli: Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and Bharat Janata Party (BJP) leader Uma Bharti secured a judicial relief today (Aug 16, 2005), when the Additional District and Sessions Court here upheld her discharge by a lower court in a 1994 criminal case.

Judge B Durgappa pronounced the order in a jam-packed court dismissing a batch of five applications challenging dropping of charges against the firebrand 'sanyasin' and others filed by Komu Souharda Vedike, communal harmony forum and another person.

In his verdict, the judge upheld the order of the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court granting permission for the prosecution to drop the charges against her and others, observing that he had applied his mind in the larger public interest.

The judge also said all the mandatory provisions had been followed in dropping the charges.

Social activist Gouri Lankesh of the Vedike and others had filed the criminal revision petition against the JMFC's order passed nearly a year ago discharging Bharti and 11 others in connection with the riots that broke out during the BJP's agitation led by her to unfurl the national flag at the Idgah Maidan here on August 15, 1994.

Seven persons had lost their lives in police firing following the violence that erupted on that day.

The case took a dramatic turn when the court issued a Non-Bailable Warrant against Bharti for not appearing before it, leading to her exist as chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.

She was in judicial custody for about a week in Dharwad before the JMFC set her free after dropping the charges.