Syed Sujeel Ahmed | India Tomorrow
BENGALURU—On Monday, the National Investigations Agency (NIA) took over the August 11 Bengaluru riots investigations into two cases, said a press release issued by the agency on Tuesday.
Surprisingly, on the day of it taking over the cases and before the start of any investigations, the NIA declared in its press release that the SDPI leader Muzammil Pasha “had incited the mob” for the attacks. The press release says, “The State Secretary of SDPI, Muzamil Pasha had earlier called a meeting and directed the members of PFI/SDPI to instigate the mob and incite violence. The mob went on rampage in DJ Halli, KG Halli and Pulakeshi Nagar area under Bengaluru City. They attacked the two police stations namely D J Halli PS and K G Halli PS and vandalized the property of police stations including Government.”
The press release fell short of mentioning the date, time, and place of the said “earlier meeting” of Muzammil Pasha with the PFI or SDPI members. Muzammil Pasha has been arrested under UAPA for his alleged involvement in the riots.
SDPI Says State Machinery Being Used for Political Vendetta
In a statement communicated to India Tomorrow, the State President of the SDPI, Elyas Muhammed Thumbe has denied the allegations and said that state machineries are being used to frame them as both the State and the Center are being ruled by the BJP. “We know how NIA has been used in Bhima Koregaon case and how they are struggling to find any evidence and arresting innocents,” said the statement.
Fact-Finding Report Says SDPI Is Being Targeted
A fact-finding report released last week did not mention any role of the SDPI in the riots and the report claimed that the SDPI was an undesirable political organization to the government. The report states, “This highly arbitrary invocation of the UAPA in the present case showcases the government’s invidious political intent to further a communal narrative against the Muslim community, and target the SDPI, which to the government is an undesirable political organization.”
On Muzammil Pasha’s role, the fact-finding report has mentioned that after Muzammil Pasha had reached the police station, he “was speaking into the megaphone (at the D.J.Halli Police Station) saying action must be taken against those putting up offensive Facebook posts. This clip offered no evidence of a provocation to riots.” Muzammil Pasha “appealed to the crowd to remain calm and wait for the law to take its course,” the report further mentioned.
Speaking to India Tomorrow, Swathi Sheshadri, member of the fact-finding team, said, “We met political (including SDPI, JDS, and BJP), religious, and community leaders, we didn’t find that it (the riots) were led by anybody. This is a law and order problem and needs to be dealt with the issue as such. Every political party tried to exploit the situation.”
The fact-finding team consisted of more than 11 civil society organizations and 23 members including former Chairperson, Karnataka State Commission for Protection of Child Rights and former Member, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, Nina Nayak. The fact-finding report was supported by the former high court judge Justice Nagmohan Das.
NIA Mentions Naveen’s Name with Honorific, Muzammil’s Not
The NIA has addressed Naveen with the Hindi honorific “Shri” in the press release , while Muzammil Pasha’s name has been mentioned without any honorific. Naveen was one who had posted incendiary and derogatory post on Facebook about Prophet Muhammed that led to riots in Bengaluru on August 11. Even when narrating about Muzammil Pasha’s alleged inciting of the mob for violence, the NIA did not call the role of Muzammil Pasha as “alleged” or an “accused” in the case. However, while mentioning about Naveen’s post the NIA calls it “alleged,” the NIA press release observes, “The mob was protesting against the derogatory social media (Facebook) post about Prophet Mohammed made on 11.08.2020 at around 4 pm by Shri Naveen, nephew of the MLA allegedly insulting the religious sentiments of the Muslims.”
The NIA was constituted in 2008 after Mumbai attacks mainly to investigate terror related incidents.
