Bengaluru riots aimed at sending message against CAA, NRC, Ram Mandir

New Delhi, Feb 25: The Centre's decisions on Article 370, CAA, NRC and the ruling of the Supreme Court had made the SDPI unhappy, following which the riots in Bengaluru were triggered, the National Investigation Agency said in its chargesheet.

The chargesheet also said that the SDPI were waiting to create communal disharmony in the country.

The NIA further said that a provocative post by the relative of Congress leader, Akhanda Srinivas Murthy was used to stoke communal riots. Three persons had died in the violence that took place in the KG Halli and DJ Halli in Bengaluru.

The SDPI was looking at exploiting emotive religious issues such as Ram Mandir, the over 300 page chargesheet said.

A criminal conspiracy was hatched by Fairoz Pasha, Mohammad Sharrif and Muzzamil Pasha along with other SDPI leaders. They were planning on posting derogatory messages about Hindu Gods and the community through Pasha's social media accounts.

The NIA further said that the Murthy's nephew, Naveen was trapped into reacting to a derogatory post, which led to the riots. Fairoz posted a video and audio clip of BJP leader Murugesh Nirani that was seen to hurt the sentiments of Hindus. He also tagged Naveen in the post and this triggered an angry reaction with a cartoon of Prophet Mohammad. Further the NIA also said that the group decided to post the message on August 11, which happens to be Krishna Janmashtami.

Further the NIA said that a WhatsApp group had been formed to plan and strategise the violence. There were over a 100 members on the group. The group was used to post images and videos with an intention of instigating people to unlawfully gather outside KG Halli and DJ Halli police station.

The SDPI however rubbished the chargesheet and said that it was a copy paste of what the investigation agencies had done after the Delhi riots. The SDPI maintains that the NIA is being used by the government to target them.