Two Congress members interrogated in Bengaluru riots by crime branch

Two Congress party members ,the former R. Sampath Raj , city mayor and the city civic ward corporator Abdul Zakir were interrogated by the central crime branch in link with the riots in the city’s eastern suburb last week, said police on Tuseday.’Raj and Zakir were summoned to the CCB office in the city and questioned about the riots in D.J. Halli and K.J. Halli areas in the suburb on August 11, in which Congress MLA from Pulakeshinagar segment Akhanda Srinivas Murthy’s house was burnt in protest against a derogatory post by his nephew in the social media’, a police official told the reporters.

R. Sampath Raj, who serves as the city mayor within the span of  2017-18, is now the  city’s councilor from the D.J. Halli ward. He lost seat in the assembly elections in May, 2018 from the C.V. Raman Nagar segment in the eastern suburb of city.

Zakir is the  Congress corporator from the D.J. Halli civic ward, a densely populated area in the eastern suburb.

Around 350 people, including  dozen of activists of the Social Democratic Party of India, a political outfit, were detained for their alleged involvement in the riots in which part of the D.J. Halli police station and scores of vehicles were  burnt and  also the public property were damaged.

When  police opened fire on fateful night to control the situation and unruly mob, three youth died.

Oddical said that the ,’Both were asked about the reported internal differences in the party between Murthy and the party’s corporators in his assembly segment ahead of the elections to the city civic body later this year,’.

Through the cctv footage of that area , some of the culprits were identified was Raj were seen indulging in arson, looting and destroying public and private property during the mayhem.

‘Zakir was questioned for reportedly forwarding a few offensive messages in the Whatapp groups, which made about 500 miscreants descend in the area and indulge in frenzied mob violence,’ stated the official.

Basavaraj Bommai, the State Home Minister told reporters on Monday that rift in the opposition (Congress) party and several of its members aspire for a ticket to contest in the upcoming civic body elections which sparked the riots in a show of one-upmanship and an attempt to settle scores.

Refuting the Bommai’s statement, D.K. Shivakumar, Congress state unit president had countered that the BJP government was trying to cover up the  failure to prevent the violence by giving misleading statements.

‘Though our members have nothing to do with the riots caused by mob frenzy, the ruling party was blaming them instead of admitting to delay in acting against the accused (Naveen) and failing to disperse the unruly mob,’ .In New Delhi, Shivakumar told the reporters, where he is camping to meet the party high command and apprise the top leadership of the situation in the city.

In a updated development, police arrested political activist Wajid Pasha from the area for allegedly instigating the mob to attack the MLA’s house and the police station.

Pasha had set up the Karnataka’s  Tipu Sultan Tiger Arfath Trust to serve the needy in the area.

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