GP member hacked to death

BENGALURU: Lakshminarayan (40), a gram panchayat member, was hacked to death by a group of men in Madanayakanahalli, in north Bengaluru, around 2.30pm Monday. Property dispute is said to be the motive, and police gathered details of the suspects soon after the incident came to light. 

Tension prevailed in the village for a while after relatives and followers of the deceased staged a protest to demand the immediate arrest of the accused.A police officer who is on the case said Lakshminarayan, a resident of Machohalli, had recently joined BJP, after quitting the JD(S). Police, therefore, initially assumed this to be a political killing.

However, preliminary investigations revealed that Harish, a local, had encroached upon government land four years ago, and Lakshminarayan had protested against it after gathering details through RTI and stopping Harish from building a shed in the premises. 

Since then, Harish had become inimical towards Lakshminarayan. Around 2.30pm, he was moving in the area when five men came in a vehicle, dragged him inside the playground of a government school, and hacked him to death. Villagers alerted police, while the accused managed to flee. The body was shifted to Victoria Hospital for postmortem, and will be handed over to the family on Tuesday. 

Madanayakanahalli police are probing the case from all angles, including political rivalry, and are looking out for Ramesh, Kumar and Harish who are the prime suspects.

Police have obtained CCTV footage, and a special team has been formed to nab the accused. 
Vijayamma, a villager, told police that Harish claimed the land belonged to his 
grandfather, an ex-serviceman. But the tahsildhar verified the land details and found the land to belong to the government. 

Harish and his gang were following Lakshminarayan for three months. Considered to be a kind and friendly person, Lakshminarayan also fought to stave off land grabbers and encroachers.