Attack on newspaper office: Court acquits eight PFI activists

Mangalore, April 11: Eight activists of Popular Front of India have been acquitted of the charges of ransacking the office of a two prominent newspapers in the city in the year 2010.

The third Additional District and Sessions Court exonerated all the eight accused from the case for lack of evidence.

It can be recalled that a group of masked miscreants had stormed into the office of 'Kannada Prabha' and 'The New Indian Express' in the city on March 2, 2010, and damaged the furniture. They also caused fire inside the office using a petrol bomb.

The newspaper had termed the attack as 'fanatic retaliation' for a translated article of Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen titled 'Pardah Hai Pardah' published by Kannada Prabha a few days prior to the incident. The blasphemous article, had led to violence in Shimoga, Hassan and some other parts of Karnataka, leaving two people dead, injuring many, besides causing damage to property running into millions of rupees.

Based on a complaint filed by the newspaper, sleuths attached to Mangalore North Police Station had arrested eight persons identified as Akbar, Farooq, Mansoor, Sameer, Ubaidullah, Kethil Iqbal alias Mohammed Iqbal, Saifullah and Anwar Sadaath.

In the charge sheet submitted to the court, police had called all the accused as PFI activists.

After a prolonged hearing Additional District and Sessions Court Judge Majagi Nijagunappa pronounced his verdict on Tuesday evening, acquitting all the eight accused.

Advocate Purushotham Poojary argued on behalf of the accused in the court.