The Halasuru police on Wednesday arrested a 26-year-old vegetable vendor and two of his associates for setting fire to as many as 14 vehicles, reportedly as a message to their relative turned rival, who is presently lodged in Parappana Agarahara Prison in Bengaluru.

D. Devaraj, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East Division), said that the accused Maqsood Ahmed, 26, a vegetable vendor at Bazaar Street in Halasuru and a resident of D. J. Halli, and his associates, Izhar Pasha, 24, and Hameed Tabrez, 26, were tracked down based on the CCTV camera footage.

The police said that the prime accused in the case, Maqsood Ahmed, is a habitual offender involved in several cases. The police have opened rowdy-sheets against the trio, following this case.

The trio, armed with petrol bottles, walked into the narrow bylane of Kariyamma Temple Street and splashed the fuel and set the vehicles on fire in the early hours of July 28. As a result, 10 two-wheelers, three bicycles belonging to residents of the area and a van belonging to a charitable trust were gutted.

Upon questioning, the police came to know that the accused had nurtured a grudge against a murder accused and his distant relative, identified as Fahad. According to the police, Fahad had murdered Maqsood’s brother-in-law Sirajuddin, 32, in Ramamurthy Nagar near Tin Factory in May earlier this year, to avenge the murder of his father.

Sirajuddin was Fahad’s maternal uncle and reportedly killed his father, Anwar Pasha in 2010 over a property dispute. Fahad was nine years old then and witnessed his father being killed and decided to avenge his death. Sirajuddin, who was arrested in the case, was released after 10 years, and Fahad, along with three of his associates, attacked and murdered him in May 2025. Fahad and his associates were arrested and are presently lodged in Parappana Agarahara Central Prison Complex. 

The accused told the police that Fahad had assaulted Maqsood and humiliated him, for which he wanted to take revenge, and they wanted to convey a message to Fahad that they were “waiting for him”.