Bengaluru riots: 'Arrest of innocents' chorus grows louder

Women show the pictures of their male relatives who they said were arbitrarily picked up by the police in DJ Halli Bengaluru on Friday. DH PHOTO/S K DINESH

Dozens of women assembled outside the DJ Halli police station on Sunday, demanding the release of their relatives, who they said had been wrongly picked for rioting.

The women — most of them mothers, wives, sisters and other close relatives of the suspects picked up on Friday and Saturday — arrived at the police station around 11 am. They said their relatives were not involved in the riots that broke out on August 11, and accused the police of picking them up without any valid reason or evidence.

READ: Bengaluru riots: Arrests rise to 309, FIRs stand at 52

Police initially tried to send the women back, insisting that no innocent had been picked up. Half an hour later, many more women assembled outside the police station. They numbered at least 70, according to the police.

Police changed tack and promised to release any suspect found to be innocent. They also asked the women to go home, saying that all types of assembly are prohibited under CrPC Section 144, which is in force in the police station limits.

READ: Bengaluru riots: CCB arrests SDPI members in overnight raids

But the women wouldn’t move. One of them even passed out. Police and other women gave her water, helping her recover after some time.

After a while, policewomen arrived at the spot and cleared the crowd with the help of their male colleagues. But some women kept coming well into the afternoon.

The women’s assembly comes at a time when the police are being accused of “arbitrarily” picking up male residents of all areas around Tannery Road. Some residents earlier said that policemen had barged into every house having adult male members.

READ: MLA Akhanda changes tack, demands CBI probe into riots

Speaking to reporters, Rubina, a resident of Govindapura, said police picked up her husband Umar and his brother Faraz when they were about to leave for work around 4 am on Saturday. She claimed both are innocent.

Another woman, Shahin, said police arrested her brother Asif, a vegetable vendor, around 1 am on Saturday just after he returned home with coriander leaves that were to be sold in the morning. She claimed that her brother was home when the riots broke out on August 11.

Several women who assembled outside the police station narrated similar tales and spoke out against police “high-handedness”. “When we approach the police, they say they will put our family members to Covid tests and question them. They should not detain innocent people for long,” a woman said.