Karnataka High Court on Friday (12 February) granted conditional bail to former Bengaluru Mayor and Congress leader R Sampath Raj, who was arrested for his alleged role in Bengaluru riots case.

The Bengaluru police booked Raj in connection with Bengaluru Riot's case in which the house of Pulikeshi Nagar MLA R Akhanda Srinivas Murthy was set on fire by miscreants on 11 August last year.

Raj has been named in the preliminary charge sheet by the Central Crime Branch (CCB). Three persons were killed in police firing and over 50 people were injured in the violence that broke out over an insinuating Facebook post allegedly posted by Murthy's nephew.

This followed by riots which also saw arson, vandalism and stone-pelting targeting the politician's house and police stations at D J Halli and K G Halli.

So far, more than 300 people were arrested in connection with the violence and the preliminary charge sheet filed in October said that intra-party rivalry within Congress was at the root of the violence. Raj and Abdul Zakir, former Congress corporator, were arrested in the case," the police said.

On 13 November, the Karnataka High Court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Raj and directed the investigating officer handling the case to take all possible steps to arrest him. Raj had gone missing on 30 October from a private hospital in Bengaluru where he was undergoing treatment for Covid-19, later Raj was arrested in November.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)