Bengaluru riots: Probe panel gives clean chit to police

Bengaluru riots: Former Karnataka Minister Aravind Limbavali, who headed the fact-finding committee of the ruling BJP to probe the Bengaluru riots that broke out about a month ago, handed over its report to Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa at the party office here on Thursday.

While handing over the report, Limbavali demanded that the State government should take steps to impose a ban on the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) for its alleged involvement in the D J Halli riots, that broke out in different parts of the city. In the riots, Congress MLA Akhanda Srinivasamurthy's ancestral house and two police stations were torched by an enraged mob over an alleged Facebook post by the MLA's nephew, Naveen Kumar. According to the report, the riots were pre-planned taking extensive help of social media to instigate the mob.

"On that day, Bengaluru witnessed a Taliban-like situation in DJ Halli and KG Halli where the riots broke out. Efficient officers should be deputed by the police for the area," the report noted. The report also tried to highlight that the riots were a result of a leadership crisis within the Congress. Giving a clean chit to the police department, the report added that intelligence failure was not the cause for the riots, but the internal crisis in the Congress was the reason.