Involvement of history-sheeters in land grabbing is not a new thing. But the way a man with criminal record and his associates looted a house and tried to occupy it at Nallagutta in Secunderabad a few days ago raised many an eyebrow.
Around noon on February 17, nearly 20 persons, including some women, arrived at Nallagutta in different vehicle. While some barged into the house, others started digging the door and window frames using crowbars. Some gang members also thrashed V. Siva Kumar, one of the owners of the house, and detained his wife in a room.
While Kumar and his neighbours rang up 100, none from Ramgopalpet police station, located 200 yards away from the residence, turned up. The police eventually arrived, but by then, most of the gang members drove away with valuables in a van. Four women and two men, who tried to flee, were caught.
The history-sheeter wanted to take possession of the house by throwing out Kumar showing some papers signed by the latter’s sibling. Interestingly, a former corporator had approached Kumar days before the attack stating that “a gangster from old city wants to purchase your house and settle the dispute between siblings”.
When Kumar rejected the proposal, the attack followed. Commissioner’s task force sleuths, who boast of cracking down on anti-social elements, strangely couldn’t track the key person behind the daytime dacoity. But one of the main accused surrendered before a court later.
Dicey situation
It’s a double blow for the families of victims in fatal hit-and-run cases. Losing their loved ones apart, families of the victims also stand to lose the opportunity to secure compensation if the accused vehicle is not traced.
“Money cannot be equated to a person’s life. Still, for poor families, compensation in the form of money gives a financial relief of sort,” says a police officer. Over 1,600 persons die in road accidents in Hyderabad and Cyberabad police Commissionerates every year.
A majority of them are pedestrians. If the vehicle is identified, the victim’s family can secure compensation by filing suits in courts. The quantum of compensation is decided by the court based on the parameters like age and earning capacity of the victim.
Failure in identifying the vehicles deprive the victims’ families of the compensation given by the accused. All they get is the money given by the government under schemes like Apathbandhu .
