BENGALURU: Tension prevailed in the villages around
Darshankuli forest
, where a
Doddalahalli
youth was killed on Thursday. Forest officials said that Gurumurthy Siddaiah alias Guru was a poacher, who died after being hit by a bullet fired by one of his associates. However,
villagers
alleged it was an encounter, and took to attacking forest and police department vehicles, even indulging in arson.
The villagers said that Guru was a farmer, and not a poacher. “His mother Thayamma is a milk farmner, and owns many cows. One of them didn’t return home on Wednesday. So Guru and three of his friends went into the forest in search of the cow,” said Mahesh Guraiah, a Doddalahalli resident.
However, Guraiah said that he did not know anything about Guru’s friends. News of Guru’s death spread like wildfire and by noon, hundreds of villagers descended on Uyamballi, on the periphery of Darshakakuli forest. The presence of cops notwithstanding, the villagers raised slogans against forest officials. A group of men even tried to upend a police jeep, but senior officials prevented them.
The mob of villagers demanded that forest officials who fired at Guru be handed over to them. Later, the villagers refused to allow Guru’s body to be taken for autopsy until the government announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh.
Meanwhile, some miscreants set vehicles parked outside the forest office on fire, and hurled stones at the windows. The front portion of the office was gutted by the fire.
Ramanagara SP
Ramesh Banoth
, along with the forest officials succeeded in pacifying the mob. “We told them compensation was not in our hands. We can recommend it if it is found that the deceased youth was not a poacher, and the forest officials are proven wrong,” a senior forest official said.
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