Bengaluru, Aug 23: A farmer who consuming poison in Magadi, near here, on Sunday, accused State police chief Om Prakash's son Karthikesh and a host of others of “harassing” him in a short interview to a TV channel from the hospital bed before his death on Monday.
T Shivanna, 55, had consumed poison at his home at Gavinagamangala village on Sunday evening. He was initially treated at a hospital in Magadi before being taken to Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru. Doctors could not save him and he died around 6 am on Monday.
Shivanna's son, Arun Kumar, made a complaint to the Magadi police and mentioned a civil dispute with his uncle Lokesh. Shivanna had even lodged a complaint with the police and moved the court, but the police did not act, Kumar said.
Kumar's complaint prompted the Magadi police to register an FIR for unnatural death. Later in the day, a video surfaced of Shivanna lying on the hospital bed and blaming several people, including Om Prakash's son Kartikesh, for his death.
In the interview, he also has accused the local Dy SP Lakshmi Ganesh and several cops, including a sub-inspector and constables of Magadi Police Station, and five villagers, of harassing him and his family. The police are investigating a property dispute between Shivanna and his brother Lokesh. Both sides have filed several cases against each other for assault.
In the video, Shivanna alleged that his family was attacked by local villagers in July 2015. His wife was disrobed and his son beaten up. He alleged that police did not take any action against the attackers. “Those who attacked my family are harassing me every day but police are taking no action,” he alleged in the interview.
IGP (central range) Seemant Kumar Singh said that the video emerged on Monday evening and that the FIR was registered on the basis of Kumar's complaint. “Several civil cases are pending over the land dispute between Shivanna and his brother. His son (Arun Kumar) filed the complaint in the afternoon before the post-mortem. Now, since the video has emerged, we will investigate further,” he said.
Shivanna's daughter Mamatha told DH, “DGP Om Prakash's son Kartikesh and my father did not have any land dispute. Kartikesh owned a stone crushing unit at Maregowdana Doddi. We own land near Kartikesh's unit. He always wanted to buy land around the unit. He often pressured the police to act against my father. My father committed suicide as he could not bear with the torture.”
Kartikesh jointly owns a stone crushing unit at Maregowdana Doddi along with Narasimhamurthy, a clerk at the DGP's office. Narasim-hamurthy was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) which is probing into cases of extortion and corruption in the Lokayukta. Local residents had objected to the crushing unit. The activities were stopped a year ago following the protests, an official said.
DG&IGP Om Prakash said that he was unaware of the incident and that his son had gone abroad.
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