On tuesday night, as visuals of a violent mob going on a rampage were beamed across television channels, confusion prevailed over why two police stations- dj Halli and KG Halli were at the receiving end. As some channels claimed that scenes of arson, stone pelting being reported were from outside dj halli, others claimed they were from KG Halli. TNM pieced together the sequence of events of why two police stations faced the ire of a mob exceeding four thousand in number, who were not deterred even by the police personnel in riot gear.

At around 8:30 pm, around 17-20 members of the Muslim community gathered outside Pulikeshi nagar congress mla R Akhanda srinivas Murthy’s bungalow in Kaval Byrasandra in Northeast Bengaluru. They were protesting against a derogatory post by his nephew on Prophet Muhammed. In a matter of minutes, the crowd started swelling and stone pelting began. Within the hour, close to 200 rioters, armed with stones, sticks and petrol, kerosene cans started damaging the legislator’s residence and also set his under construction house in the adjoining site on fire. 

By 11 pm, rumors started spreading that the MLA’s nephew was being protected by the police at the KG Halli police station, 1.4 kilometres away. Over 500 people gathered within minutes, this time, visibly prepared to create large scale violence. The angry mob started attacking police vehicles too and notwithstanding the reinforcement that arrived at the police station, started torching vehicles outside the police station. Some of the police personnel present outside the KG Halli police station were chased by the armed mob and they took shelter nearby, even as they waited for reinforcement to arrive.