Water theft: Cases filed against officials

Chats shared on WhatsApp landed a circle inspector of police, a sub-inspector, a former president of Chikkanayakanahalli City Municipal Council (CMC), an executive officer and an environment engineer in trouble as cases were registered against them based on the chats about theft of water from a lake.

On the basis of the WhatsApp chats, Tiptur Judicial Magistrate of First Class court directed deputy superintendent of police (DySP) to register cases against them and probe the case.

A few like-minded people from Chikkanayakanahalli taluk have formed a WhatsApp group, 'Chinahalli Abhivriddigagi' to discuss developmental issues.

There was water crisis in Tumakuru district in November last and members of the WhatsApp group had discussed the issue. The CMC environment engineer had visited the lake for inspection. There was a discussion in the group that action was not taken against those who stole water from the lake.

Based on the directions of the then CMC president C D Chandrashekhar, executive officer Manjula had lodged a complaint with the police, seeking action.

However, the inspector Marappa and sub-inspector Manjunath had failed to take action.

Bhattarahalli Mallikarjun, who is the said WhatsApp group admin, had moved the court in May seeking action. He had enclosed audio files and screen shots of WhatsApp chats as evidences for his claims.

The court considered the evidence and directed the DySP on July 23, 2018 to register cases against Chandrashekhar, Manjula, Marappa and Manjunath.

Subsequently, cases were registered against them at the Chikkanayakanahalli police station on Wednesday.

Interestingly, July 31 was the last working day of Marappa who superannuated on Wednesday. “It is not known if Marappa delayed action only to protect the culprits,” Mallikarjun said.