58 more arrested for Bengaluru violence

Bengaluru : As part of its investigation into the riots that rocked the city's eastern suburb on August 11 night, police arrested 58 more people for their alleged involvement in them, an official said on Sunday.

"We have arrested 58 more people since Friday, taking the total number of suspects held for their role in the riots to 264 so far, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) for Bengaluru East S.D. Sharanappa told IANS here.

The police also booked 52 cases against all the accused under various sections of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) for rioting, looting, arson and destroying public property, ostensibly, in protest against a derogatory post on the social media on that fateful day.

"Of the arrested, the main accused are in our (police) custody for interrogation, while others have been lodged in the central jail on the city's outskirts and the Ballari prison under 14-day judicial custody, as investigation on their role in the riots is underway," said Sharanappa. Ballari is about 330km northwest of Bengaluru in the southern state.

In the two-hour long riots, the unruly mob burnt the house of Pulakeshinagar Assembly segment's Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy and the D.J. Halli police station in the vicinity, set scores of police and public vehicles on fire and destroyed public property.

To quell the mob violence and control the situation, the police opened fire in which three youths from the locality succumbed to bullet wounds later.