The NIA court on Wednesday convicted three among the 138 accused involved in the Kadugondana Halli (K.G. Halli) police station attack case, and sentenced them to seven years of imprisonment, with a fine of ₹36,000 each.

The trio, Syed Ikramuddin, 44, Syed Asif, 46, and Mohammed Atif, 26, are among the 187 arrested out of the 199 accused in the case. The trio, who are presently in judicial custody at Parappana Agarahara prison, pleaded guilty. Among the NIA charge-sheeted 138 people, four surrendered, and one died.

Case background

It may be recalled that on August 11, 2020, a group of 25 to 30 people gathered in front of the K.G. Halli police station and started shouting slogans demanding the arrest of one Naveen, nephew of Akhanda Srinivas Murthy, an MLA, who had allegedly posted a derogatory message on his Facebook account insulting Prophet Mohammed.

The group, led by Syed Ikramuddin (accused no. 14), and others, entered the K.G. Halli police station demanding registration of a case against Naveen and others. The police accepted the complaint with acknowledgement that a case had already been registered at Devara Jeevana Halli (D.J. Halli ) police station on the same day in this regard.

The gathering at K.G. Halli police station was increasing gradually, and becoming violent, following a similar situation near the D.J. Halli police station area.

Considering the gravity of the situation, the then Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru city, imposed curfew under the D.J. Halli and K.G. Halli police stations limits.

The gathered crowd intensified their protest by shouting slogans, and turned to violent activities. They started pelting stones at the police station. Furthermore, they attacked the police personnel on duty as well as the public who were trying to help the police pacify the crowd and control the situation.

The police then resorted to ‘Lathi’ charge in order to control the crowd. Subsequently, the police fired tear gas with an intention of dispersing the unruly crowd and bringing the situation under control.

But the mob became more aggressive and started attacking police personnel, and set ablaze government and public properties, also resulting in injuries to the police personnel. The police fired two rounds in air with their service weapons to disperse the mob.

One death

However, people in the mob tried to snatch the weapons of the police. Some officials opened fire on the mob, and during gunfire, one person was injured, who later succumbed to his injuries at a hospital. Thereafter, the mob gradually dispersed from the area.

During the incident, the rioters damaged a total of 12 government and private vehicles. Five two-wheelers and one four-wheeler were burnt, while six other vehicles were damaged.

The then Police Inspector, Ajay Sarathy, lodged a complaint charging the accused under various sections of the IPC and also under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. However, the police later invoked the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act against the accused. The NIA took over the case after re-registering the FIR on September 21, 2020.