The National Investigating Agency on Thursday arrested a key plotter in the Bengaluru riots case. 30 areas of the city were raided by NIA and a resident Sayed Saddiq Ali for his inclusion in the attack on KG Halli Police Station in Bengaluru that occurred in the late night of August 11 was arrested.
The riots brought about immense harm and decimation of public and government property, including harm to the police building.
The charged, captured by the NIA, works as a recovery agent with a bank and was absconding since the riots. Searches led by the NIA on Thursday were pointed toward uncovering the scheme behind the assaults on DJ Halli and KG Halli police station. During the searches, the probe agency took hold of airgun, pellets, sharp weapons, iron bars, computerised gadgets, DVRs, and numerous SDPI and PFI-related implicating archives and material.
Saddiq had been absconding since the mob attacks that day. He was named as an accused in the original FIR registered by the Bengaluru Police after eyewitness accounts indicated that he was at the front of the violent mob and an active participant in the attack.
The NIA had assumed control over the Bangalore riots case on September 23 on directions of the Union home ministry. While the NIA team, headed by an Inspector General (IG)-ranked officer, is camping in Bengaluru, the agency has also re-registered two cases — one each at DJ Halli and Kadugodanahalli (KG Halli) police stations.
Mob violence had broken out in Bengaluru on August 11 night after a man, who is the nephew of a sitting Congress MLA, posted a derogatory remark on social media insulting the religious sentiments of Muslims.
Earlier this week, NIA had stated that “more than 1000 people” had gathered in front of Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy’s residence in Kaval Byrasandra on August 11 following an alleged derogatory post against Muslims uploaded by his nephew Naveen on Facebook.