Tumkur: 5 Burnt Alive Over Property Dispute
Chikkanayakanahalli (Tumkur dist), February 19, (DHNS): Five of a family, two of them children, were burnt alive after their house was set ablaze, allegedly by their relatives at Gollarahatti of Sondenahalli, Tumkur district in the early hours of Saturday.
Junjamma (78), her daughter and former JD(U) member of Godekere Gram Panchayat, Shivamma (45), son-in-law Krishnappa (58) and their grandchildren Jeevant (4) and Gurumurthy (2) were charred to death.
The children were visiting their grandparents. Krishnappa’s son Jagadish, has been admitted to Victoria Hospital, Bangalore with 60 per cent burns.
A lorry driver passing by noticed the fire and alerted the villagers who rushed to the rescue. However, five of the family were already dead. Jagadish was pulled outside through the window. Bodies of the children were buried under the pile of half-burnt coconuts. The villagers doused the fire immediately and rescued the livestock in the shed.
Furniture, a bike and a bicycle were gutted. Eyewitnesses deduced that the five family members had died of suffocation from smoke emanating from the burning coconuts stored in the attic, as the clothes were intact.
Police suspect that someone had locked the door from outside as the family members slept at night, and set fire to the tile-roofed house, a haystack in the backyard and the adjacent cowshed.
Animosity
Krishnappa of Bennanayakanahalli had married Shivamma after the death of his first wife and stayed with Junjamma, who had no son.
They lived at Junjamma’s farmhouse situated half a kilometre from Gollarahatti. She owned eight acres of land with over 300 coconut trees. They also worked in a nearby mine.
Junjamma and her brother Thimmaiah had a dispute over property for years. Jagadish, in his complaint has named Thimmaiah and his sons as responsible for the fire.
He said: “When the smoke filled the house, we desperately tried to open the door. We couldn’t even open the windows.”
The village residents also suspect the involvement of Nagesh, Krishnappa’s son from his first wife. He too had a dispute with Junjamma’s family over property and might have allied with Thimmaiah, they suspect.
Police have registered a case of murder. P K Shivashankar, ASP told Deccan Herald that Thimmaiah and his son have been taken into custody. The police have found a torch and a kerosene can used for the heinous act.