Bengaluru violence: Former mayor and Congress leader R Sampath Raj arrested, say police sources

Bengaluru: Former Congress mayor R Sampath Raj, who was wanted in the Bengaluru violence case that left four people dead, has been arrested, police sources said on Tuesday. Sampath Raj, the Congress corporator from Devara Jeevanahalli municipal ward, was arrested in Bengaluru, the sources said without divulging further details. He had escaped from a private hospital where he got admitted for COVID-19. The police recently arrested one of his aides Riyazuddin who had helped him and another Congress corporator Abdul Rakeeb Zakir to escape. He had given them shelter at Nagarhole in Mysuru. Zakir is also wanted in the Bengaluru violence case. Raj was wanted in connection with the cases related to the violence that rocked parts of the city on 11 August. Around 3,000 to 4,000 people went on a rampage, setting ablaze the houses of Pulakeshinagar Congress MLA R Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy and his sister over an alleged inflammatory social media post by his nephew. The mob also torched Devara Jeevanahalli and Kadugondanahalli police stations over suspicion that the nephew was present there. Three people were killed in police firing while another person died due to abdominal injuries suffered in the violence. In the charge sheet, Raj has been charged with hatching a conspiracy with the violence to finish off the MLA politically in connivance with Zakir and a few others. Raj and Zakir were still at large and a hunt was on to nab them, police had said.