5 cops suspended for 'beating liquor thief to death in dry well'

Five police officers have been suspended for allegedly beating to death a 50-year-old labourer accused of stealing liquor and hiding his body in a dry well. The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) will now probe the matter.

Munipillappa alias Muni Kulla, a resident of Naduvatti village near Hoskote on the eastern outskirts of Bengaluru, was found dead in a dry well near his home on Friday, hours after the police picked him up on suspicion that he was stealing liquor bottles from a bar in K Mallasandra.

Munipillappa, who worked in a timber yard at Naduvatti, was detained for questioning after Madhusudan, a cashier at Sri Choudeshwari Bar and Restaurant, filed a police complaint on April 7. Madhusudan told the police that his boss and the bar’s owner, Radhakrishna, had called him and said he had seen two people entering the bar from the terrace and stealing liquor from the storeroom. According to Madhusudan, Radhakrishna told him that CCTV cameras had caught the theft and that he saw the footage on his phone.

Madhusudan took the help of regular customers to identify the men caught on camera. One of them was identified as Munipillappa. So Madhusudan filed a police complaint against him and another unknown person. Police allegedly detained Munipillappa on Wednesday but sent him home. They detained him again on Friday and took him to a dry well in Naduvatti for Mahazar (spot inspection). Munipillappa was suspected to have hidden the stolen liquor bottles there.

Munipillappa’s family knew that the police had picked him up. They went looking for him when he didn’t return home even after hours. They found his body in the well. The family alleged that the police beat him so badly that he died, and pushed his body into the well.

Ravi D Channanavar, Superintendent of Police, Bengaluru Rural, told reporters that he had suspended five officers, including circle inspector Raghu, sub-inspector Rakesh C and four members of the crime detection squad. Shockingly, Channanavar said, all the five officers have gone absconding after the incident came to light.

Channanavar said that external injuries were found on Munipillappa’s body. The policemen tried to close the case, saying Munipillappa had himself jumped into the well.

The body has been shifted to Victoria Hospital for post-mortem, which may be conducted on Sunday. A source said that the police officers were suspended only after the local MLA intervened. The police hurriedly registered an FIR against Munipilappa on Friday.

DH tried to contact Channannavar for comment but he could not be reached.