Bengaluru: Riots and unrest prevailed in the silicon valley Bengaluru after the house of Pulakeshinagar MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy was burnt down and two police stations in Bengaluru were vandalised over a objectionable social media post hurting the sentiments of a community. Now, the issue seems to be taking an ugly turn with the BJP trying to portray the riots as attack on a Dalit.
Sensing the danger, the Congress has quickly got into action, distancing itself from the SDPI and trying to blame the BJP saying that riots were instigated by BJP activists to put the blame on Congress.
While Congress despatched a fact finding committee headed by former Deputy Chief Minister Dr G Parameshwar, who himself is a dalit, BJP has constituted a fact finding committee headed by former minister Aravind Limbavali, who belongs to Bovi community, to which Akhanda Srinivas Murthy also belong to.
BJP leaders B L Santhosh, Deputy Chief Minister Ashwathnarayana, Ministers C T Ravi, B C Patil and others have come down heavily on Congress for supporting minority community blindly, who are attacking Dalits in the State.
KPCC President D K Shivakumar has shot back counter accusing BJP of following anti-Dalit policies.
Meanwhile, on Saturday evening, former minister B Z Zameer Ahamed Khan led a group of Muslim clerics to the house of Akhanda Srinivas Murthy to send across a message that it was not a fight between Muslims and Dalits at Kadugondanahalli and Devarajeevana Halli.
The clerics made a statement that they were ready to reconstruct the house of MLA from community funds, if the MLA agreed.
However, Zameer Ahamed Khan's earlier action had drawn flak from some of the Congress leaders themselves. Zameer had visited the houses of the three persons killed in police firing and distributed Rs five lakh each.
He had also said that the violence was instigated by miscreants, while all those killed were innocent. The BJP was quick to seize the issue and pointed out that Zameer and Congress had links with the attackers and are calling them innocent.
Some of the Congress leaders requested Siddaramaiah to advise Zameer not to identify himself with attackers, as it would substantiate the BJP claim that it was a fight between Muslims and Dalits.
Meanwhile, the special team investigating the riots has approached the cyber crime police for digital analysis of the crime scene.
So far, the police have 8000 telephone numbers, with an equal number of WhatsApp accounts to be analysed. Besides, police have obtained thousands of instagram and facebook accounts as well as calls made using facebook messenger during the riots. The police are also analysing CCTV footage of over 800 cameras for further clues in the case.
