Riots case: Ex-corporator Zakir to remain in CCB custody until December 8

A local court has remanded former corporator Abdul Rakeeb Zakir in police custody until Tuesday in connection with the arson attack on the residence of Pulakeshinagar MLA R Akhanda Srinivas Murthy during the Bengaluru riots on August 11.

The court passed the order around 4.30 pm on Friday on the Central Crime Branch’s petition for permission to question Zakir in custody for five days. The CCB will take him into custody on Saturday morning from the Parappana Agrahara prison where he is currently lodged, a senior police officer said.

The agency intends to question him about the riots that were triggered after Murthy’s nephew P Naveen Kumar uploaded a Facebook post on Prophet Muhammad. Sleuths will also take Zakir for Mahazar (an inspection of the places connected with the crime), besides questioning him about his alleged hideouts and people who sheltered him, the officer added.

Zakir was on the run for one-and-a-half-months and turned himself in only on Wednesday night. The CCB has already charged him in the arson case and may decide on filing an additional charge sheet against him once his custodial interrogation ends.

Former mayor R Sampath Raj, another accused in the case, was arrested last month and is in judicial custody.

The CCB believes Raj and Zakir plotted the arson to settle political settles with Murthy.