Film actor hacked to death over rivalry

The victim had acted in 'Hai Krishna', a little known film

Little known Kannada film actor Naveen Krishna (28) was hacked to death by a gang of six men in public during the late hours of Sunday.

The incident occurred at a Maramma Temple, at Belavadi, located on the outskirts of the city, where the deceased was attending a ritual along with his parents. After hacking Naveen, the gang crushed his head with a boulder.

According to the police, Naveen was dancing at a ceremony held at the temple, when the assailants dragged him out and hacked him with lethal weapons. The murder occurred in front of his parents. After the murder, the assailants ran away from the spot on a four wheeler. Even though hundreds of people were present at the temple, nobody came to the aid of the deceased during the assault, police said.

Absconding
Based on a complaint filed by Naveen’s father, Ninganagowda, Vijayanagar police have booked a case against six persons including Chandrashekar, Shashi, Deepu, Diwakar and Lokesh. However, all the six are absconding and police are on the look out for the accused.

Rivalry
Police sources said that the murder was the result of a rivalry between the deceased and the gang. Naveen too had a total of eight criminal cases such as attempt to murder and cheating, lodged against him.

With his movie ‘Hai Krishna’ achieving little success, Naveen was in dire financial straits, which had led to an animosity with his friends. This had resulted in several complaints being lodged against him. Chandrashekar, one of the accused in the case, is Naveen’s cousin. Chandrashekar,  a cable operator had a disagreement with Naveen recently and a police case was filed. Lokesh, another accused, too was a friend of Naveen. However, following differences, Naveen had assaulted Lokesh, resulting in severe injuries.
Both the deceased and accused are all residents of the same village.