Former Bengaluru mayor and Congress leader Sampath Raj has been arrested in connection with the Bengaluru riots case. He had been absconding for more than a fortnight and was finally arrested by the Central Crime branch on Monday in the DJ Halli-violence case.
“Sampath Raj has been arrested. Further details will be given tomorrow,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil.
The riot took place after a mob set fire to the house of Congress MLA Akhanda Sreenivas Murthy, apart from several other properties including police stations and vehicles in the DJ Halli and KG Halli police station limits. The actions were instigated over an alleged derogatory social media post made against the minority community, by Murthy’s nephew, P Naveen Kumar. Raj has been named a key accused in the case.
However, he went missing after October 30 from a private hospital in the city where he was undergoing treatment for Covid-19.
The Karnataka High Court on Friday directed the Investigating officer probing the case to take all possible steps to trace Raj and arrest him. The court also directed the officer to file a report on the steps taken to trace the accused, in a sealed envelope, during the next hearing on November 25. Raj’s anticipatory bail plea is pending before the court.
Meanwhile, Murthy on Monday said he was unhappy that his party leaders were not standing by his side. “I have been requesting the party president DK Shivakumar to make a statement in our support. It’s been three months since the incident and we have suffered a lot but he has not even made a statement yet,” said Murthy.
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