Locals protest killing of “naxalites”

The gunning down of five suspected Maoists at Menasinahadya in Karnataka’s Chickmagalur district on Tuesday has triggerred a violent reaction from the locals, who set fire to a police jeep to protest the killing of “innocent” persons in the guise of anti-naxalite operations.

A large number of people gathered outside the house of Rame Gowda, where the shoot-out took place, and prevented the police from shifting the dead bodies for post-mortem. The angry locals, many of whom bared their chests and dared the police to shoot at them, later set fire to a police jeep stationed near the scene of the encounter, besides bringing down trees to block the road leading Menasinahadya.

The locals identified one of the victims of the shoot-out as Paramesh, a tribal leader, who was also the office bearer of Kudremukh National Park Struggle Committee, while the other person named as Subramanya was an arecanut labourer, who had been to Rame Gowda’s house to spray pesticides the previous night.

The villagers argued that Paramesh, who was Rame Gowda’s nephew, and Subramanya stayed overnight at Rame Gowda’s house as it was raining. The locals, who were demanding a high-level probe to expose the police action, said the dead bodies of three persons, including Rame Gowda and his wife, were found inside the house. “They have killed innocent persons in the name of anti-naxal operations”, the locals alleged.

Though the police managed to shift the bodies to Chickmagalur for a post-mortem yesterday, almost 24 hours after the shoot-out, hundreds of people from adjoining villages in Koppa and Sringeri taluk, besides Balehonnur set out for Chickmagalur, where the Kudremukh National Park Struggle Committee was planning to stage a massive demonstration.

With a view to preventing any untoward incident, the police detained hundreds of people en-route to Chickmagalur. More than 80 persons were also arrested in Balehonnur and cases were booked against ten of them for taking part in the violent incidents at Menasinahadya in the wake of the police encounter.

Meanwhile, Karnataka’s Director General of Police K R Srinivasan said Gautham, one of the persons killed in the encounter, was an office bearer of Karnataka State Committee of CPI (Maoists) while Paramesh was also involved in naxalite activities for the last three to four years.
Though the police insisted that the three others killed in the shoot-out were also naxalites, details about their antecedents and links with the naxalites were not shared with the media.

The issue figured in the State Legislature with Home Minister M P Prakash justifying the police action of opening fire at the naxalites in Menasinahadya. The recovery of a sten gun with ammunition and a country made pistol from the site of the encounter proves that the persons killed were naxalites, Prakash reasoned.

A grenade lobbed at the police by the ultras that did not explode had also been recovered. Two more naxals had escaped into the surrounding forests with arms and ammunition. He said the police had also found pamphlets and naxalite literature from the persons killed in the encounter.

Meanwhile, a police constable Raghav, who sustained bullet injuries in the exchange of fire with the naxalites, had been admitted to a hospital in Manipal in neighbouring Udupi district. He is said to be out of danger.