NIA seeks ex-mayor's custody in riots case

Bengaluru: Troubles for former mayor, R.Sampath Raj don't seem to end. As soon as his police custody ended on Friday, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) now pleaded with a city court to hand him over to the agency for further investigation into the Bengaluru riots case.

Just four days ago, the Central Crime Branch police had arrested Samapath Raj. When the CCB produced him before the civil and sessions court on Friday, it remanded him to judicial custody. Soon after, the NIA filed an appeal before the court seeking his custody to inquire further into the riots case. The plea is yet to come up for hearing.

The NIA is probing the riots case parallely to the CCB, and so far the agency has arrested as many as 293 persons in connection with the case. Of the total 293 arrests, 124 were made in relation to the riots in the D.J. Halli police station area, while the remaining 169 arrests were made in connection with the riots in the K.G. Halli police station area.

Just two days ago, the NIA conducted search operations in more than 43 locations in Bengaluru, including four offices of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and the Popular Front of India (PFI) for their alleged involvement in the riots.

The NIA had claimed in its statement that its sleuths had seized incriminating materials relating to the SDPI and PFI besides weapons like swords, knives and iron rods during the raids.