Three people have been sentenced to seven years of hard imprisonment by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Court in Bengaluru. The case pertained to the August 2020 violent mob attack on the DJ Halli and KG Halli police stations. They are identified as Syed Ikramuddin (alias Syed Naveed), Syed Atif and Mohammed Atif. Furthermore, each convict was slapped with ₹36,000 fine.
Sections 15, 16, 18 and 20 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, sections 143, 147, 148, 353, 333, 332, 436, 427 and 149 of the Indian Penal Code alongside section 4 of the Karnataka Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act was invoked against them.
“The substantial sentences imposed on accused number 14, 16, and 18 shall run concurrently. The period spent in judicial custody shall be set off under Section 428 of the CrPC. The entire fine recovered shall be applied towards defraying the expenses incurred in the prosecution,” the court stated.
According to the chargesheet, they were the fourteenth, sixteenth and eighteenth accused. 187 of the 199 people named in the case were taken into custody. One died while four others later turned themselves in. 138 people have thus far been the subject of a formal chargesheet filed by the prosecution.
On 11th August 2020 over 300 people assembled in front of the DJ Halli Police Station to protest an allegedly disparaging Facebook post made by P. Naveen about Prophet Muhammad, according to the police. He is the nephew of Congress leader and Pulakeshinagar MLA Akhanda Srinivas Murthy.
A man named Firdous Pasha filed a complaint claiming offences under Sections 295-A and 153 of the Indian Penal Code, which led to the filing of a formal complaint. The throng, however, refused to disperse and only grew in size in spite of the FIR and the police’s best attempts to pacify them. Afterward, they gathered outside the home of Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy and severely damaged it.
Syed Ikramuddin, one of the now-convicted people, spearheaded the demonstration. Police enforced Section 144 of the CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) to keep the peace as tensions increased. However, the blood-thirsty crowd caused extensive property damage throughout the area and three fatalities transpired duirng police action. The violence injured more than 80 police officers.
13 vehicles were also vandalized, including one Innova, five two-wheelers and seven other automobiles. As the radicals caused chaos, their liberal and leftist apologists attempted to cover up their crimes by claiming that human chains were created to protect the tempels, a lie that was subsequently exposed.
The local police then handed over the investigation to the NIA. Critical connections between the accused and the now-banned Popular Front of India (PFI) and its political offshoot, the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) were uncovered by NIA investigations.
According to the agency, PFI members planned the attack with the intention of escalating communal tensions and upending governmental institutions. There are currently 64 criminal cases lodged and investigations are underway.