MAHABUBNAGAR : Days after a Dalit farmer was mowed down by a lorry as he tried to resist illegal sand lifting in Rajapur, the police registered cases against three persons for their alleged involvement in his death on Saturday. G Narasimha, 35, was murdered on Wednesday night, after he stopped a few persons from lifting sand from his agricultural land in Thirmalapur. It is learnt that he has been resisting their attempts for a while now.
What’s interesting is that though the accused persons were arrested on Saturday, they were immediately released, as a few personnel at Rajapur police station are Covid-positive. The police say they wanted to avoid keeping the accused in the station through the weekend due to the Covid threat. They have decided to arrest them once again on Monday, so that the accused can be produced before a court within 24 hours. Speaking to Express, Jadcherla (Rural) CI Shiva Kumar said that cases have been registered against a man named Chukka Venkatesh, lorry owner Sridhar and driver Raju.
At the same time, there have been allegations of politicians’ involvement in the whole affair. Some say local leaders are trying to prevent the accused persons from getting locked up at all and that the Covid-19 risk is just a cover. Former MLA Mallu Ravi told Express that he had lodged a complaint with senior police officials in Hyderabad over the farmer’s death. He demanded that strict action be taken against the accused.