Karnataka   

People hail ‘encounter’ victims

Ganesh Prabhu

Megur (Chikmagalur district): The house of Rame Gowda has bullet holes in almost every room. The rice that he and his wife, Kaveri, had stored is strewn all over in one of the rooms. In another room, clothes are scattered on the floor. The tiled roof has bullet holes indicating random firing. Rainwater was seen in the house. In short, the house appears to have been the scene of an ambush.

Residents of Megur and Menasinahadya villages, located in the forests of the Western Ghats, 7 km from the main road, speak well of Rame Gowda, Kaveri, and the two other victims of the July 10 encounter, Parmeshwara and Sunderesh.

Several residents told The Hindu that Rame Gowda and Kaveri were a generous couple. They had two sons, Prashanth (14) and Adarsh (10), who study in Nemar, a village in Sringeri taluk. Prashanth has been reportedly missing since the day of the encounter. Rame Gowda had a small piece of land, which, according to villagers, yielded him two quintals of rice and 50 kg of arecanut a year. During a part of the year, he worked as an agricultural labourer.

The residents say that if the police were suspicious of Rame Gowda’s activities, they could have resorted to legal means. There was no need to kill him and his wife. Prashanth, Director of Lamps Society, Koppa, said: “They should not have been shot just because they gave food to naxalites.” On the day of the encounter, Parmeshwara and Sunderesh were in the couple’s house. Sunderesh was to spray insecticide on Rame Gowda’s areca palms, and Parmeshwara was just visiting.

According to Sunderesh’s brothers, T.A. Jayakumar and T.A. Gunde, “Neither Sunderesh nor we are connected in any manner to naxalites. We only agreed to their contention that tribal people should be given title deeds. We are not connected with their struggle.”

With tears in his eyes, Parmeshwara’s father, Sheshe Gowda, said that Parmeshwara never talked about naxalites. Since he was the general secretary of the Kudremukh Rashtriya Udyana Virodhi Samiti, a local Hindutva outfit branded him a naxalite sympathiser, he said. Recalling Tuesday’s encounter, he said that it was “like bursting of crackers. He went to Rame Gowda’s house as Rame Gowda is our relative.”

There was a pitched battle between the police and people of Megur and Menasinahadya villages on Tuesday night. The villagers had blocked the roads with logs and dug trenches. They even set a government vehicle on fire. The villagers did not want the dead bodies of the five persons killed in the “encounter” to be removed until the Chief Minister arrived on the spot. But the police resorted to lathi-charge around 1.45 a.m. on Wednesday and dispersed the crowd.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

People hail ‘encounter’ victims
BSNL staff strike total
New law on water usage soon
Balan for consensus on hydroelectric projects
Davangere gets a new wicket
Carted away
Poor quality foodgrains being supplied for meal scheme, says ZP member
ZP members stage walkout
JSW Steel to take over three ITIs
Industrial camps in Krishnagiri, Hosur
Proposals invited to run old-age homes
Employment fair for textile sector on July 28, 29
Efforts to appease rain gods
Close call
Kudremukh park: eviction threat looms over Megur
Arrack sachets recovered
Assurance
Falling in line
University launches five-year courses
Phone-in programme
Free training
Vaccination for dogs
Seminar on visa
Water Adalat

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu