Another forest official murdered in Karnataka

Karwar: Close on the heels of a forest official being assaulted and killed in Dandeli, a forest guard was on Saturday allegedly killed by a person over a personal feud at Vaderi forest check post near Karwar, police said.

The deceased has been identified as Viresh Hiremath, 45, who succumbed to head injuries after he was assaulted with a wooden log by one Manjunath Naik, who has been arrested, Karwar SP K T Balakrishna said.

Assistant Conservator of Forests Madan H Nayak died in a Dharwad hospital on May 9 after he was allegedly assaulted by a group of tourists in Dandeli on May 6 when he tried to prevent them from throwing meat to crocodiles in Kali river at the Dandeli crocodile park.

Nayak had told them it was dangerous and may result in the reptiles attacking them. But the tourists who were reportedly in an inebriated state refused to pay heed to his advice and instead allegedly assaulted him, injuring him seriously.

CID sleuths on Friday began their investigation into the Nayak case. A couple of days ago Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda had directed the CID to take over the case in the light of public outcry against alleged inaction by local police.

Advertisement

The owner of the private crocodile park at Dandeli was arrested, taking the total number of arrests in the Nayak murder case to seven, police said.

The arrested has been identified as Shivaram Patil, who was running the park in brazen violation of rules, police said.

Advertisement

Patil, who was taken into custody by a CID team lead by its Superintendent of Police K P Bheemayya, was produced before a local court at Sirsi and remanded in judicial custody.