Bengaluru riots: Ex-mayor Sampath Raj, corporator grilled for five hours

The Central Crime Branch (CCB) questioned two BBMP corporators, including a former mayor, for more than five hours on Tuesday over the riots that broke out in DJ Halli and KG Halli on August 11.

R Sampath Raj, DJ Halli (ward 47) corporator and a former mayor, and Abdul Rakeeb Zakir, the corporator of Pulakeshinagar (ward 78), appeared at the CCB headquarters after being served notices on Monday to appear for questioning over their suspected involvement in fanning the riots, police said. The notices were served after the CCB detained Sampath’s nephew and personal assistant Arun.

Sampath is suspected to have called up some members of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) from Arun’s phone. Police believe the riots were orchestrated by the SDPI. A senior police officer said that Sampath was expecting the Congress ticket from the Pulakeshinagar assembly constituency in the 2018 election, but the party fielded R Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, who had come from the JD(S).

In the same elections, Sampath contested from CV Raman Nagar but lost to the BJP candidate. He thought he had a better chance in Pulakeshinagar and harboured differences with Akhanda. The riots were triggered by an offensive post uploaded to Facebook by Akhanda’s nephew, P Naveen.

Sampath and Zakir showed up at the CCB headquarters around 10.20 am and left around 4.30 pm. Investigators haven’t yet ruled out their involvement in the violent protests. CCB sleuths seized the corporators’ phones but gave them SIM cards. The phones have been sent for forensic analysis. The cops want to determine if they had deleted anything.

A senior CCB officer suggested that the corporators didn’t give satisfactory answers to the questioned posed to them. While Sampath was interrogated by Assistant Commissioner of Police Gautham, Zakir was grilled by ACP, Jagannath Rai. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime-2) K P Ravi Kumar, too, questioned them. The corporators may be called again for questioning once their phones are back fro the forensic analysis.

Speaking to newspersons, the corporators claimed they were innocent. They said they had answered all the questions asked by the CCB officers and that they had nothing to with the riots.