Date:22/09/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/09/22/stories/2007092253800400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

‘Lawyer plotted Tuesday’s attacks’

K.V. Subramanya

Police tight-lipped about the organisations with which arrested are associated with

Home Minister says no political pressure on the police
Rangaswamy was earlier associated with some Hindu organisations

BANGALORE: The Bangalore police on Friday made public the names of the 12 people who were arrested on charges of setting on fire a Tamil Nadu State Express Transport Corporation bus on Hosur Road here on Tuesday night, causing the death of two passengers.

Two of the arrested, Rangaswamy and Rajesh, are also said to have taken part in the attack on the J.P. Nagar residence of Selvi, daughter of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, the police said. The other person arrested in the J.P. Nagar incident has been identified as Murugan, who helped identify Selvi’s house.

Asked whether a case of murder has been registered against the accused, Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Bipin Gopalkrishna said they had been booked on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, arson, unlawful assembly and causing loss to public property.

Highly placed sources in the police told The Hindu that Rangaswamy, who is a lawyer in Sunkadakatte area in Bangalore West, allegedly plotted the twin attacks and harboured the other accused after the attack.

Rangaswamy claimed that he was earlier associated with some Hindu organisations, including the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, but now kept himself away from these outfits, according to police sources.

More arrests are likely to follow in the next few days and some people have been detained for questioning, the sources said.

While the police were tight-lipped about the names of organisations with which the arrested persons are associated with and the motive behind the two related incidents, they admitted off-the-record that Sangh Parivar organisations carried out the attacks as a sequel to Mr. Karunanidhi’s statements on Lord Ram.

Mr. Gopalkrishna, who released the names of the arrested persons to the media, declined to take any questions from presspersons who thronged his chambers in large numbers.

When pressed for details, Mr. Gopalkrishna said: “We have just made the arrests. Give us some time to investigate into their antecedents and also to trace the other suspects.”

On Wednesday, Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa denied the complicity of Hindu organisations in the attacks.

Incidentally, 11 of the accused in the bus burning incident are from Bommanhalli on Hosur Road, where the Chennai-bound vehicle was torched.

The arrested were identified as A. Harish Babu (29), Manju (27), Sagai Raju (25) and Papanna (29), all carpenters, Basavaraj (28) and Narasimha (27), both drivers, Seena (28) and Manjunath (26), both supervisors in garment factories, Vijay Kumar (28), photographer, Rajesh (31), marketing executive, and Anil Kumar (27).

‘No pressure’

Meanwhile, Home Minister M.P. Prakash made it clear that there was no political pressure on the police. “None of the persons involved in the attack will be spared irrespective of who they are,” he declared.

Speaking to The Hindu, he congratulated the police for showing diligence in arresting some of the people involved in the attacks. “This act of detection will go a long way in improving the relationship between the people of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka,” he said.

The State Human Rights Commission has taken suo motu cognisance of the incident and has decided to issue notices to the Government and the police. Commission Chairman, S.R. Nayak, told reporters here on Friday that if lapses were found on the part of the police or the Government, the Commission would take necessary action.