About 30 people, said to be relatives of Arun Raj, the personal assistant of DJ Halli corporator R Sampath Raj, staged a protest in front of the city police chief on Friday night.
They were protesting Arun’s arrest over the August 11 riots. Commotion prevailed for 30 minutes before the cops whisked away the protesters, many of them women, to the Vidhana Soudha police station. Arun, who’s also the corporator’s nephew, was detained by the CCB for his role in instigating the riots. He was arrested on August 19. The CCB says he was “in touch” with a few members of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) at the time of the riots.
A violent mob ransacked and burnt the DJ Halli and KG Halli police stations as well as the residence of Pulakeshinagar MLA, R Ahkanda Srinivas Murthy.
Arun’s family claimed he was picked up six days ago and accused the CCB of not intimating them about his arrest. They also alleged that the CCB didn’t produce Arun before the court and that he was under illegal detention.
A senior officer said Arun was arrested on the basis of “strong evidence” of phone calls between him and SDPI members. “The family’s allegations are baseless. We also summoned Sampath Raj for questioning and he’s aware of Arun’s arrest. It is just a diversionary tactic,” he said.
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