Karnataka - Hassan   

Probe on into firing incident

HASSAN: Fifteen workers were asleep in a tent near Kadumane Estate in Sakleshpur taluk in the district on Monday, when someone opened fire in the area killing worker Shivaram and injuring Gopinathan and Thambi.

The police suspect hunters to have been responsible for the firing. Superintendent of Police K.V. Sharatchandra has directed Deputy Superintendent of Police Prabhakar to conducted a detailed inquiry into the incident, while Deputy Conservator of Forests K.H. Nagaraj has asked Range Forest Officer of Sakleshpur to submit a report after inspecting the area.

Kadumane Estate is situated deep in the forest and is 25 km away from the Bangalore-Mangalore National Highway. It is infamous for criminal and other illegal activities. In 2006, the body of an employee of a Bangalore-based call centre was disposed of in the area.

The workers had come to fell trees, for which permission was granted this year. The request from Kadumane Estate officials to fell 4,000 trees over an area covering 2,000 acres had been pending for three years.

The contract was won by a person from Kadur in Chikmagalur district and felling had been on since a fortnight.

According to sources, the timber was worth Rs. 15 crore.

A timber mafia is active in the Sakleshpur forests, as some of the trees there are between 100 to 150 years old.

The sources feel that someone who had failed to get the timber contract might have fired at the workers to frighten them.

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