Bengaluru riots: CCB searches SDPI offices, seizes computers

The CCB on Tuesday searched the headquarters and two other offices of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) as part of the investigation into the Pulakeshinagar riots of August 11.

The searches were conducted at the DJ Halli, KG Halli and Cubbonpet offices of the party after duly obtaining court warrants, said Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime). Around 30 members of the SDPI have been arrested for “planning and instigating” Bengaluru’s worst mob violence in two decades.

Another senior officer claimed that a few lethal weapons, including a machete and a knife, were found at the party’s Govindapura office in KG Halli.

The search of the party’s headquarters yielded a computer, a laptop, an external hard disk, a pen drive, two printers, banners and pamphlets about the SDPI, a copy of the party’s constitution, a book on the anti-terror law UAPA, banners and pamphlets on the CAA and the NRC, the officer said.

It is alleged that SDPI members had kept weapons as they were involved in settling land and other disputes. “Cyber experts will check the computer, the laptop, the hard disk and other seized items. A few files, videos and pictures were deleted from the computers,” the officer said.

The CCB has been investigating three cases with respect to the arson attacks on the residence of Pulakeshinagar MLA, R Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, and DJ Halli and KG Halli police stations.