School prez hacked to death in front of students

A 64-year-old man who is the president of a school was hacked to death by six assailants inside his school at Agrahara Dasarahalli in Magadi Road on Sunday morning.

Police swung into action to arrest the prime accused within five hours of the incident. Search is on for the others involved in the murder, said to have been triggered by a property dispute.

Ranganath Nayak, a resident of Housing Board Colony near Rajajinagar and a native of Pavagada, bought Maruthi Public School from his friend in 2003 after retiring as an assistant manager in RBI. He rechristened it Havanur Public School.

DCP (west) Ravi D Channannavar identified the prime accused as Muniraju alias Babli (25) who has five cases against his name in several city police stations.

On a tip-off, Magadi Road police inspector R Hemanth Kumar and his team tried to capture the accused near Kirloskar Poultry Road near Mahalakshmi Layout but Muniraju assaulted police constables Naveen and Srinivas with deadly weapons.

The inspector fired thrice in self-defence, injuring Muniraju on the legs. Police later shifted Muniraju to Victoria Hospital.

Channannavar said a murder case has been registered at Magadi Road police station against Prasad, Mahesh, Srinivas, Muniraju and others. Another senior police officer said the incident took place around 10.30 am on Sunday when Nayak and school administrative staff were having a meeting with his neighbour Rajashekar over a property issue. The six assailants barged into the meeting room and assaulted Nayak.

His administrative staff Lokesh Gowda and assistant Yathish rushed to his rescue but they were also attacked. Gowda and Yathish escaped with stab injuries and were admitted to a nearby hospital.

Preliminary investigations revealed that a property attached to Nayak’s school premises was under dispute. It was alleged that one of his neighbours, Gangamma, encroached on a portion of the land and the dispute was before the court.

Even as the dispute remained at the court, Gangamma died and her sons Prasad and Mahesh followed the case.

Recently, the court ruled in favour of Nayak and ordered the authorities to demolish the disputed building. This prompted the two men to hold a grudge on Nayak.

Police suspect that Prasad and his gang planned the murder and have formed a special team to nab the missing accused. They also believe Muniraj was hired to kill Nayak, though they are yet to ascertain the motive.

All angles being probed

Police are probing all possible angles.

Nayak’s friend and an eyewitness to the incident Anjanappa said everything happened in a flash. “He called me to his school on Sunday morning to discuss the disputed land. I went with my friend Mallesh,” Anjanappa said.

“As we were discussing the issue, the gang burst in and attacked Nayak. I tried to rescue him, but the gang pushed me away. They hacked Nayak and fled the spot,” he added.