TUMAKURU: In a heartbreaking incident, the owner of a container truck and his accomplices from Belagavi district detained the driver of the truck for almost two days, beat him black and blue and eventually made him starve until death at Sira town.
The accused are identified as owner of the container- Balappa Mallappa of Chikkaladinni village of Hukkeri taluk in Belagavi district and his accomplices Santhosh Shivappa Navakodi of Yamakanamaradi, Parashuram Gowdappa Dandinavar, Parashurama Lagumappa Gorali and Adavappa Basappa Gujanal of the same district, all in their twenties and thirties, have been arrested on charges of murder.
They had subjected the victim Basappa Bevin(38), the second driver of the container, of Kadatanal village in Bailahongala taluk to a harsh ordeal keeping him in detention for two days. The cruelty reached it's zenith as the accused locked the victim and the first driver Somappa inside the container and left them there till Thursday.
"They were not given food since Wednesday night and on Thursday afternoon the accused shifted them to the government hospital in Sira town where the victim breathed his last. They were made to starve and suffocated to death", informed the concerned police sub-inspector Rangashamaiah.
Background:
On Tuesday midnight the container truck laden with motorcycle spare parts-the rims- had hit a lorry parked on NH-48 near Sira. None were injured but the front portion of the container truck was damaged to an extent. There was no major damage for the lorry.
The drivers of the container had called up the accused owner Balappa Mallappa over his phone and intimated following which Mallappa along with his friends came by car early in the morning to the spot. As both the drivers were asleep at the spot the accused got angry and scolded them using filthy language and straight away started beating both the drivers up with sticks fashioned out of tree branches. " Despite being in an accident you bastards are sleeping," they told the duo, the first driver Somappa said while narrating the ordeal to the police in detail.
Since the day they arrived at the spot on Tuesday morning the accused subjected the victim to ordeals which resulted in the death, police sources said. "They did not give us food and went off at around 8.30 a.m on Thursday after locking us inside the container and returned at around 1 p.m", he explained.
The container after loading the spare parts in Pune was bound to Chennai to unload the same and it had two drivers given the long distance to be covered. The victim was at the wheels when the accident occurred and he might have dozed off, police said.