SDPI denies role in Bengaluru violence

The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) has denied in role in the violence that occurred in the northeast part of Bengaluru on Tuesday night.

“As always, the SDPI is being dragged just to cover-up police inaction against blasphemy and failure of intelligence,” SDPI Karnataka president Elyas Muhammad Thumbe said.

Follow all the latest updates on the Bengaluru violence here

“A person named Naveen had been making inflammatory comments on Islam for the past couple of days. When people went to complain, the police dragged their feet because he was the relative of the local MLA,” Thumbe said. “The violence shouldn’t have happened, but it did and the only only reason for that is the inefficiency of the police and Naveen’s (inflammatory) post.”

Thumbe confirmed that Muzammil Pasha, a prime accused in the rioting, belonged to the SDPI. “But he was there with the police trying to calm people down. We can see him in videos doing that,” Thumbe said.

Read: Bengaluru riot: Was Yediyurappa government sleeping, asks Congress

The SDPI, which is linked to the extremist Popular Front of India, is slowly gaining ground at the grassroots. It holds 72 seats in various panchayats and 33 in ULBs. This includes the Siddapura municipal ward in Bengaluru. In the ULB polls held in 2018, the SDPI had bagged 17 seats - 11 in the communally-sensitive Dakshina Kannada district and six in Chamarajanagar district.

SDPI Karnataka general secretary Abdul Hannan condemned the police for arresting a few local leaders and cadres of the party and “unnecessarily dragging them into the incident.” He said, “This kind of injustice will not decline the commitment and steadfastness of SDPI leaders and cadres who work hard for the cause of justice, equality and development.”