Lying on hospital bed, victim alleges 'torture'

Bengaluru, Aug 23 (DHNS): A farmer committed suicide by consuming poison at his home at Magadi, 36 km west of Bengaluru. In a dying declaration before camera, he accused the son of state police chief Om Prakash of “harassing” him by supporting his rival in a land dispute.

T Shivanna, 57, 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.

“DGP’s son Kartikesh, DySP Lakshmi Ganesh, Srinivasa, Govindaraj and Devaraj are responsible for what happened. I had written a letter to the government on July 13, 2015, but no action was taken. Raja, Thimma and Narayan attacked my son and wife. I lodged a complaint with the police, but they did not take action. Police only registered a case, but did not take any action,” he said before the camera and started gasping for breath.

IGP (central range) Seemant Kumar Singh told DH 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.