Bengaluru: 6 from SDPI held for attack on RSS member

A Bengaluru 'terror module' has been busted with the arrest of six members of the Social Democratic Party of India who had allegedly attempted to kill a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker on December 22 for taking part in a pro-Citizenship Amendment Act rally, police said on Friday.

The arrested have been identified as Irfan, Syed Akbar, Syed Siddiqui, Akbar Basha, Sanaulla and Sadiq Amin alias 'Sound Amin', all residents of KG Halli in the city, Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao told reporters.

Bharatiya Janata Party Bengaluru south MP Tejasvi Surya and right wing leader Chakravarthy Sulibele were among the prominent speakers at last month's pro-Citizenship Amendment Act rally.

According to Rao, the SDPI members reached the venue on three stolen motorcycles. They wanted to storm into the crowd initially but due to heavy police presence, they could not.

They wanted to create a panic situation by hurling stones so that people will flee deserting their leaders making it easier to eliminate their targets, the commissioner said. However, the stones missed the target.

They later decided to zero in on RSS worker Varun who was supplying water and taking care of the participants at the rally.

When he was on his way home, the SDPI activists waylaid and attacked him, Rao said.

According to the commissioner, Varun survived due to timely medical assistance.

They wanted to carry out the act to create a lot of disturbance in the city, Rao said.

"All of them are from the SDPI and they wanted to carry out the dastardly act to create lot of disturbance in Bengaluru City on December 22," Rao told reporters in Bengaluru.

They were being paid Rs 10,000 per month from their handlers to carry out their agenda, the commissioner said, adding the matter has now been handed over to the Anti-Terror Squad.

In addition to it, a Special Investigation Team will be formed to ensure that such people do not create any disturbance, Rao said.

"We are not going to spare anyone whoever their handlers and financiers are whether inside the country or outside.I am constituting an SIT to see that such people do
not create any disturbance," Rao said.

The arrested members were all radicalised and their agenda was to recruit cadres, train and radicalise them, cause destruction and kill prominent people to cause mass disturbance in the city, he said.

"We have named them as the Bengaluru terror module of chapter-1. All of them are in our custody. They wanted to kill the main speakers of the event (pro-Citizenship Amendment Act rally)," Rao said.

After the incident, a special team was formed which examined footage of more than 700 CCTV cameras, identified and nabbed the perpetrators of the crime.

Besides registering a case of attempt to murder, cases have been booked against them for creating enmity between two religious communities and under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, Rao said.

Reacting to the arrest, Tejasvi Surya said, "SDPI is an organisation, which has not been banned yet. The SDPI has become strong because the then chief minister Siddaramaiah dropped cases against its members."

He called the arrest only a tip of the iceberg and said he would bring the activities of the SDPI to the notice of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.