Attack on RSS worker: Cops checked 700 cams to identify suspects

Attack on RSS worker: Plot 'meticulously planned and executed', say police

Police were up against the wall while trying to trace the men who stabbed RSS worker Varun Bopala in a well-executed plan as he left a pro-CAA rally last month. Detectives had to review 700 CCTV cameras and sift through a staggering 850 hours of footage to zero in on the six suspects.

Police reviewed the footage for several weeks to establish the trail of the suspects as they rode two motorbikes from Town Hall to DJ Halli via Mysuru Road, Bidadi, Kengeri NICE Road, Goraguntepalya, KR Puram, RK Hegde Nagar and Kothanur in more than four hours on December 22, 2019.

Police acknowledged that the plot was “meticulously planned and executed”. The suspects carefully disposed of the weapons used in the crime, the shoes, the clothes, the helmets and the vehicles. They wore several pairs of shirts and trousers to avoid being detected. They wore the helmets during the entire course of the plot and had kept their mobile phones at home. They applied black soot on the registration plats of the two-wheelers.

The following is the account of the six suspects as per the CCTV footage:

They gathered in front of the Town Hall around 11 am on December 22 as the BJP held a demonstration in support of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Police chief Bhaskar Rao said the suspects initially planned to throw stones on the rallyists and disrupt the protest. They threw a total of seven stones but that didn’t do the trick. One stone fell on writer Chakravarti Sulibele, who was speaking at the rally. He apparently ignored the stone. Rao said the large police presence outside Town Halli deterred the suspects from indulging in “large-scale stone-throwing”.

Soon after Sulibele finished his speech, the suspects saw Bopala, clad in a saffron shirt, walking to his motorbike parked nearby. They decided to follow him.

CCTV cameras installed near Town Hall showed the suspects moving towards Mysuru Road after allegedly stabbing Bopala. The suspects went straight to the Rajarajeswari Nagar arch and changed their clothes. They then moved to Bidadi, took off their clothes again and burnt them around 1 pm. They then made a U-turn towards Bengaluru, went to a masjid and offered namaz around 1.15 pm. They later refuelled at a petrol bunk and rode until Kengeri, NICE Road. From there, they went to Anchepalya Lake and disposed of the weapons around 2 pm.

The suspects then went to Goraguntepalya and rode on the ORR to reach ITI Colony in KR Puram around 3 pm. It was here they disposed of their helmets in a pond and threw the shoes in a drain. They then rode to RK Hedge Nagar and hid one of their bikes. The second bike was concealed near Kothanur police station. From there, they reached DJ Halli around 4.30 pm and dispersed.