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Key accused in 2020 DJ Halli violence held: NIA
Bengaluru: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday arrested an alleged key conspirator of the 2020 Bengaluru riots that left four persons dead
Bengaluru: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday arrested an alleged key conspirator of the 2020 Bengaluru riots that left four persons dead.
Syed Abbas (38), a resident of Govindapura, was later produced before a special court of the agency and remanded to six-day custody, the investigating agency said in a statement.
Abbas is the ward president of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) in Nagawara ward in Bengaluru.
“Investigation has revealed that accused Abbas is the president of SDPI Nagawara, Bengaluru Ward. He along with his co-conspirators...were actively involved in burning vehicles and attacking police officers on duty at KG Halli Police Station,” the NIA statement read.
It added that further investigation into the case is underway.
The riots in Bengaluru on August 11 last year were triggered by an alleged derogatory Facebook post by Naveen P, nephew of Congress MLA from Pulakeshinagar constituency R Akhanda Srinivas Murthy.
As per a police complaint filed on the same day, a mob had gathered in DJ Halli and KG Halli areas after police sought time to initiate action against Naveen over his social media post. The attacks on public and private properties and vehicles and police stations began at 9.30 pm and continued till the early hours of August 12, according to the FIR registered atKG Halli policestation.
The NIA release said the accused had set fire to KG Halli police station using petrol bombs.
To control the mob, police had opened fire, killing three persons on the spot. Another person succumbed to injuries in the hospital.
Abbas have been accused of rioting and being part of a mob armed with weapons, and attacking and injuring many police officers, the NIA release said.
The NIA took over the probe into the riots in September last year. While Bengaluru Police had booked more than 400 people under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the NIA, in its charge sheet filed almost six months later, reduced the number of people booked and added sections of the Indian Penal Code against most of the others.
Lawyers claim that several innocent people are in prison on false charges.
“In the charge sheet filed by the NIA, only 47 people have been booked under UAPA. At least 370 people have been booked under various sections of IPC. Initially, when the case was filed, most of them were booked under UAPA by Bengaluru Police, which the NIA changed. Most of them were denied bail for six months because of the UAPA charges,” Mohammad Azhar, a lawyer representing some of the accused in the case, said.
