Congress leader and former corporator Rakib Zakir, a key accused in Bengaluru riots case, has been arrested by Central Crime Branch (CCB) officials in Bengaluru.
According to the reports, Joint Commissioner of Crime Sandip Patil said that Congress leader Rakib Zakir was arrested late on Wednesday night. The Congress leader had escaped after he was named accused in the Bengaluru riots case.
Zakir is the second corporator to get arrested in the Bengaluru riots case. Earlier, the CCB officials had arrested Congress leader and former mayor R Sampath Raj. Zakir was on the run for more than one-and-half months along with Sampath. However, the former Mayor had decided to surrender before police on November 17 after his efforts to quash the FIR and get anticipatory bail got rejected.
Reportedly, Zakir and Sampath both were hiding together in the same farmhouse near Nagarahole. Two weeks back, the Central Crime Branch officials had nabbed Riyazuddin, a close aide of Congress leader Sampath Raj. Riyazuddin was arrested and sent to judicial custody for allegedly helping the accused in hiding himself and absconding.
Riyazuddin was himself absconding and was arrested on the November 7 on charges of helping and harbouring Sampath Raj. He had apparently taken Raj to a farmhouse near Nagarahole and hid him there for a few days.
The involvement of Congress leader Sampath Raj, Zakir
Raj is believed to be one of the conspirators in instigating the Bengaluru riots in August this year. The charge-sheet filed by the Central Crime Branch (CCB) in connection with the Bengaluru riots case stated that the Congress leader Sampath Raj had joined hands with Zakir and other radical Islamic organisation such as SDPI to target his own party’s Dalit MLA Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy.
In the 850-page charge sheet, the CCB has named 52 people as accused. There are statements of more than 30 eyewitnesses. The investigating agency has named former Mayor Sampath Raj and Zakir Hussain of the Congress Party as accused number 51 and 52, respectively.
The Bengaluru Riots
On 11th August 2020, at around 8:30 PM, a riot-like situation took place between the DJ Halli and KJ Halli police station limits in the east Bengaluru. As per the reports, more than 1000 people gathered outside the house of Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, demanding immediate action against his relative Naveen, who allegedly posted objectionable content against Prophet Muhammad on Facebook.
The situation came under control on 12th August around 1 AM. Three people were killed, and more than 60 police personnel were injured. More than 300 vehicles were damaged in the riots.