Tension prevailed at Katigenahalli in Tumakuru taluk late on Saturday night when police opened fire in the air to disperse agitators who set fire to a police van and threw stones at police vehicles. Six persons were injured in the clash between the police and village residents.
The reason for the clash was the suicide of a village resident identified as Shivakumar (31), a person with disability who was working in the Tumakuru University. His body was found near the railway track between Hirehalli and Kyatsandra on the outskirts of Tumakuru on Saturday morning.
Village residents protesting against the setting up of a waste management unit at Ajjagondanahalli linked Shivakumar’s death to their agitation, and had planned to stage protests in front of the offices of the Tumakuru CMC and the Deputy Commissioner. But the police did not grant them permission. So, they staged a protest on the premises of the district government hospital where Shivakumar’s body had been taken for post-mortem examination.
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Later in the night, when police brought the body to Katigenahalli to hand it over to Shivakumar’s family, village residents switched off the lights, threw chilli powder on police personnel and hurled stones at them and their vehicles. A police van was also set on fire.
In the clash that followed, Police Inspectors Abdul Khader and Ravi, two constables, and village residents Shankaraiah (70) and Chandrashekaraiah(58) were injured.
They were shifted to government hospital.
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Tahsildar Maruthi Prasanna told The Hindu that “it was a pre-planned attack on the police by the village residents. They had switched off the lights in the whole village, threw chilli powder and hurled stones at police personnel and beat them up with sticks.”