Bengaluru former mayor R. Sampath Raj, an accused in the August 11 city riots, was arrested by the Central Crime Branch police in the Karnataka capital on Monday night. Raj, who was absconding since October 30, was arrested when he visited a friend's house in the city.
Raj (51) is one of the accused (A-51) in the riots, where a mob of 300 people burnt down the house of Pulakeshinagar MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy and vandalised homes, vehicles and police stations in DJ Halli and KG Halli. The violence followed a protest against a derogatory social media post on Prophet Mohammed allegedly posted by the MLA's nephew Naveen.
The police have filed 72 FIRs and arrested 412 persons in connection with the arson and vandalism. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), too, is probing into the incident since September 22, 2020.
Raj was in the dock after his personal assistant Arun Kumar, was arrested on August 19, a day after Raj was interrogated. The former mayor declared he was Covid positive in mid-September and admitted himself to the Baptist hospital and had also filed for anticipatory bail. He was admitted and discharged twice before he was finally discharged on October 30. However, the hospital failed to inform the police, which was waiting with a non-bailable warrant. Raj went absconding.
On November 7, the CCB had picked up Riyazuddin, a close aide of Raj for "harbouring" the latter, while another aide Abdul Rakheeb Zakir, a Congress corporator (Pulakeshinagar) is absconding.
Last week, BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel had alleged that KPCC chief was "hiding" an accused and dared the Congress leaders to intervene and get Raj to surrender.
On November 13, the Karnataka high court had directed the police to "take steps" to trace and arrest Sampath Raj, after the court was informed that Raj, who had a non-bailable arrest warrant against him was on the run. Raj is accused of "instigating violence".
Responding to the arrest of Sampath Raj, aggrieved MLA Srinivas Murthy demanded stern action against the culprits. He also expressed confidence that the guilty will be brought to book. "I urge my party to expel the accused (Raj) and he must be made to pay for the damages. Our leader Siddaramaiah and Zameer are supporting me. At least now, I hope my party chief D.K. Shivakumar stands by me," said Srinivas Murthy.
Who is Sampath Raj?
Sampath Raj is a two-time councillor from Devarajeevanahalli, who was elected as the 51st Mayor of Bengaluru in September 2017. His election to the top post was attributed to his proximity to former minister K.J. George, who represents the Sarvajnanagar assembly constituency.
Raj, who dropped out of engineering, entered politics through NSUI. He runs educational institutes and has declared assets worth Rs 33 crore in his election affidavit filed in 2018.
'Political rivalry'
The power tussle within the Congress party is responsible for the riots, alleges the BJP. "It is a fallout of the fight between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, " says Kateel. The political graph of Srinivas Murthy hints at the possibility of one such squabble for power.
The trigger for the August 11 riots is believed to be the political rivalry among the Congress leaders, states the 400-page interim chargesheet filed by the CCB.
Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, who was elected an MLA on a JD(S) ticket in 2013, jumped ship to the Congress, along with six other MLAs—Zameer Ahmad Khan (Chamrajpet), N. Cheluvarayaswamy (Nagamangala), H.C. Balakrishna (Magadi), Ramesh Bandisiddegowda (Srirangapatna), Iqbal Ansari (Gangavati) and Bheema Nayak (Hagaribommanahalli), after they cross-voted in the Rajya Sabha polls, resulting in the defeat of the JD(S) candidate B.M. Farooq.
The JD(S) rebels had voted for K.C. Ramamurthy, an independent candidate supported by the Congress as the third candidate. Furious over the dissidence, the JD(S) leaders had sought the disqualification of the rebels. But the disqualification petition was kept pending for two years by the then Speaker K.B. Koliwad, who later dismissed it as "infructuous".
In the May 2018 assembly polls, all seven contested on a Congress ticket, but only three—Zameer Ahmed Khan, Akhanda Srinivas Murthy and Bheema Naik won the seat.
Srinivas Murthy joining the Congress had upset Sampath Raj, a two-time councillor of Deevara Jeevana Halli and the sitting mayor, who was hopeful of getting the party ticket to contest from Pulakeshinagar constituency. Despite having the backing of senior leaders like G. Parameshwara, D.K. Shivakumar and K.J. George, Sampath Raj lost the ticket to Srinivas Murthy, who had the support of then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Zameer, an influential minority leader who could draw sizeable Muslim votes.
Srinivas Murthy won by cornering more than 77 per cent of votes. Sampath Raj, who contested from the neighbouring C. V. Raman constituency, lost the seat to incumbent BJP MLA S. Raghu by 12,220 votes.