#BengaluruRiots Cost of damage to public property will be recovered from the rioters: Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai

Speaking to the reporters earlier today, Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai has clarified that the cost of damages to public property will be recovered from the rioters as per the Supreme Court order. “The rioters would be made to pay for the damages made to the public property and the funds are expected to be recovered from their property”, he said.

The police have so far arrested 145 rioters and are identifying others who were involved in attacking the Cong MLA Akhand Srinivasa Murthy’s house and the DJ Halli police station. The government is already in the process of ascertaining the losses, said the home minister.

BJP MP from Bengaluru South and many other leaders of Hindu organisations had demanded that the cost of damage be recovered from the rioters as was done by Yogi Adityanath’s government in Uttar Pradesh. State cabinet minister CT Ravi had also said that the rioters will be made to pay for the loss to public property as was done in Uttar Pradesh during the anti-CAA riots in 2019.

Home Minister Bommai also said that apart from the probing the role of SDPI in yesterday’s riots in Bengaluru, the police would also probe earlier cases against SDPI he said. The Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI) is the political arm of the dreaded Popular Front of India (PFI) which has been involved in many other riots and killings of RSS Swayamsevaks and other Hindu leaders.

Home Minister’s statement to probe SDPI comes at a time when there is a increasing demand to ban PFI in the country for its anti-national activities. It can be recalled that several cases against PFI and SDPI members were closed during Congress Government under Siddaramaiah.