The Karnataka High Court has recently quashed the chargesheet against 17 men accused of forming an unlawful assembly near a Dargah and making provocative remarks with the intent to cause riot. [2026 LiveLaw (Kar) 411]

It was alleged that in the chargesheet that on 27.10.2019, the petitioners formed "an unlawful assembly" near Ghouse Peer Qadri Dargha wherein petitioner no. 1 Mubarak Sharieff stated to be a member of PFI told the assembled people that "power of Islam Religion Organization should be shown by unity and everyone should indulge in illegal activities which would result in paralyzing the social tranquility".

It was alleged that petitioner no. 1 uttered few words which was heard by police officials. The case was filed under Sections 143(punishment for Unlawful Assembly), 153(Wantonly Giving Provocation with Intent to Cause Riot), 117(Abetting Commission of Offence by the Public or by More Than Ten Persons), 149 (common object) of IPC.

The single judge bench of Justice V Srishananda held that the prosecution's case rested solely on statements of police officials who had claimed to have heard the alleged utterances while hiding behind a fence near the Dargah.

"Since there are no independent persons who have heard about the incident and it is only the police officials who have been examined and their statements have been recorded, as rightly pointed out on behalf of the petitioners, continuation of the proceedings would be nothing but abuse of process of law”, the court ruled.

Advocate Saddam R. Mulla, appearing for the petitioners argued that a Sunday gathering of Muslim persons near a Dargah is entirely natural. He also pointed out that except the police officials, there was not a single witness who heard the alleged utterance by the first petitioner-accused.

Meanwhile the prosecution claimed that the head and other members of the police raid party had hidden themselves near the place of incident behind a fence and had heard Mubarak Shariff make the statement.

In the absence of any independent witnesses, the court quashed the case.