Bengaluru: Cops quiz doctors over disappearance of roits accused

Bengaluru: The Central Crime Branch sleuths have started questioning doctors of a hospital from where former Congress mayor R Sampath Raj, accused in the Bengaluru violence case, had allegedly disappeared.

According to Bengaluru police joint commissioner Sandeep Patil, the police had asked hospital authorities to inform them when Sampath Raj was discharged but they did not. Accordingly, another notice was served on the hospital authorities to explain how the former mayor was allowed to go without informing police. "Responding to our notice the doctors have appeared and we are questioning them," Patil told reporters on Monday.

Sampath Raj, a sitting Congress corporator from Devara Jeevanahalli municipal ward, is accused of hatching the Bengaluru riots targeting the Pulakeshinagar Congress MLA R Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy and his sister Jayanthi. Angry over a purportedly inflammatory social media post, a mob torched the Devara Jeevanahalli and Kadugondanahalli police stations besides damaging many vehicles, government and private properties.

Three people were killed in police firing while the fourth one died of abdominal injuries. Over 425 people have been taken into custody including SDPI leader Muzammil Pasha. The National Investigation Agency is also probing the matter from the terror angle and has arrested two people. The charge sheet filed against the absconding former mayor accuses him of taking advantage of the social media post for political gain and instigating the mob against Murthy to finish him off politically.