Bengaluru Citizens Form Fact Finding Committee To Probe The Violent Rioting In The City

Karnataka's capital has stayed on top of headlines for the past two days thanks to a mob taking to the streets and setting ablaze the house of a Dalit MLA Akhand Srinivas Murthy and vandalising the DG Halli police station surroundings.

The political parties in question continue to guard their fortresses and blame it on a 'delay in police action' as the reason for a 'well armed' group of people to 'erupt' into violent demonstration of dissent.

The area is a 'sensitive' one, and so was the issue. Those who attacked were 'not from my constituency' says the Dalit MLA, also distancing himself from his 'nephew' whose post is said to have 'triggered' this reaction of a riot.

But what has the regular Bengalurean done to pay the price for the 'alleged' insult of the sentiments of a group of people by an individual?

What really went wrong in Pulakeshinagar? Who is to be held accountable for setting silicon city on fire? How did a group of people who were reportedly at the police station only to register a complain and being 'pacified' by those leading them, suddenly decide to take law in to their own hands?

But a neutral and unbiased report of the events that led to the vandalism is what is needed. And hence, a group of citizens representing various sections have formed a fact finding committee to furbish the same.

Citizens For Democracy, a citizen organisation based in Chamarajapete, Bengaluru has formed a committee headed by a former District Judge Srikanth Babaladi and constituting of retired IAS, IFS, IRS officers, social activists and journalists to 'survey the incident neutrally without any bias or vested political interests with a sole commitment towards truth'.

"In view of this, we see a need to look at this whole episode in detail and uncover the plot behind it and come up with a plan of action that can be implemented by both the society and the government ," say committee members.

The committee, among whose members are Retired Director General of Police M N Krishnamurthy, journalists R K Mattoo and Santhosh Thammaiah and retired IAS officer Madan Gopal, will visit the affected areas, hear from the victims, access available evidence and submit a report to the government so that the desired action can be taken in this regard.

"These kinds of incidents attempt to shake the solidarity of the Bengaluru citizens," say committee members, reiterating the need for the initiative.