Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SD)

Bengaluru, Oct 13: The Central Crime Branch (CCB) probing the violence that erupted in Bengaluru's DJ Halli and KJ Halli over an inflammatory social media post had named former mayor and sitting Congress corporator R Sampath Raj as one of the accused, the police said on Tuesday.

"He has been named as one of the accused in the DJ Halli and KJ Halli violence," a top investigating police officer said stating that he was one among those who had the information about the violence and refrained from sharing it to the police.

Congress corporator of Pulakeshinagar, Abdul Rakeeb Zakir was also named as accused.

CCB sources said that both Congress leaders have been named in the 850-page preliminary charge sheet filed on Monday, but did not divulge further details.

Raj and Zakir had been questioned earlier, but were not arrested so far. However, the CCB arrested Raj's personal assistant Arun Kumar on August 19 for allegedly remaining in touch with alleged conspirators of the riots.

Sampath Raj along with Abdul Rakeeb Zakir, Pulakeshinagar Congress corporator were questioned for several hours earlier. 

It may be recalled that the violence began after religious sentiments were offended following an objectionable post on Facebook, by P Naveen. He is the nephew of Congress MLA from Pulakeshinagar, Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy. Murthy, a Dalit leader, had defected from the JD(S) to Congress before the last poll and won it too at the chagrin of the Congress bigwigs who had been eying the seat. In the incident the legislator's house was torched by rioters and in a bid to quell the rioters, the police opened fire in which three people lost their lives and another died in the hospital.

With Inputs from IANS