Sacked cop chops over 80 guava trees over land dispute

A dismissed police constable and his associates have been accused of chopping around 80 guava trees from a farmland in Kasaba Hobli over a land dispute in Nelamangala rural in north Bengaluru on Sunday. The guava trees were five to six years old, complainant and farmland owner M Nagaraju told DH.

The police have arrested the accused H Nagaraja and his son Vinod, residents of Mahalakshmi Layout and are on the hunt for 20 others who not only went on a rampage cutting the trees, but also intimidated the caretaker who questioned them. “We know what we are doing, and if you intervene, you too will meet the same fate as the trees,” they are said to have told the caretaker, according to M Nagaraju.

The incident happened between 10.30 and 11 am when the accused along with 20 to 25 men armed with machetes barged into M Nagaraju’s farmland in Mantanakurichi in Sondekoppa and started cutting the guava trees.

M Nagaraju’s caretaker who stayed close by, rushed to the farm and questioned them. The accused intimidated him and chased him away. The caretaker then called up M Nagaraju, a resident of Rajajinagar. M Nagaraju asked his caretaker to stay away and rushed to the Nelamangala rural police station and lodged a complaint.

In his complaint, he stated that he had bought two acres and one gunta land from H Nagaraja’s family in 2003. Later H Nagaraja, filed a suit in the court stating that his family sold the property without his consent and his dispute was about his share of around 19-20 guntas.

The complaint also states that H Nagaraja, who worked as a constable in Nelamangala police station, was accused of murdering his wife using his inspector’s service pistol which was with him at that time. The constable, who was dismissed from service, was convicted for 14 years and had recently come out of prison to pursue the case, the complainant said.

“We have registered a case and are booking the accused under IPC sections 143 – unlawful assembly, 147 and 148 – rioting and armed with deadly weapon, 447 – criminal trespass, 341 – wrongful restraint, 323 – assault, among other sections including criminal intimidation,” said a senior police officer.