Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], August 24 (ANI): Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra on Monday raised fresh questions over the August 15 Hanur forest firing in which three people were killed and another person, Mahima Das, was injured, alleging lapses in the handling of the case and seeking greater transparency from the state government.
Vijayendra claimed that none of the three people killed in the alleged encounter had a criminal background and questioned why the post-mortem report had not been made public despite, according to him, the authorities having received it.
“The three people who were killed, whether it was Antony, Sebastian or the third person, none of them were habitual offenders. None of the three people who were killed in the encounter had a criminal background,” Vijayendra said.
He said the post-mortem report was among the key pieces of information required to establish what happened during the firing.
“The most important question that arises here is: Why has the state government kept this post-mortem report hidden from the public for so many days, despite having received it?” he asked.
Vijayendra also focused on the fourth person who was allegedly present when the firing took place. He questioned the whereabouts of Mahima Das and alleged that the Forest Department and police were keeping him away from the public.
“The second question is about the four people who had gone into the forest. Three of them were killed in the encounter. The fourth person was Mahima Das. Where is Mahima Das? What happened to him? Where has he gone?” he said.
“According to the information available to us, Mahima Das is being kept hidden by the Forest Department and the Police Department,” he alleged.
Vijayendra described Das as a crucial figure in the investigation, saying he was both a suspect and a witness to the events that unfolded in the forest.
“Why is Mahima Das being kept away? Because he is the prime suspect as well as the prime witness. He is the prime witness to the entire episode, the encounter and the shooting. He was the fourth person present there,” he said.
He further alleged that the authorities were attempting to prevent Das from coming before the public because of his potential importance to the investigation.
“Since he is the prime witness, it appears that somewhere along the line, the authorities, forest officials, police officials and even the state government are trying to keep him hidden,” Vijayendra said.
The BJP leader also referred to the party’s fact-finding exercise into the incident. He said the team had visited the spot and recorded its observations regarding the circumstances surrounding the firing.
“Why do these suspicions arise? When the fact-finding team visited the spot, Sunil Bhosale reportedly stated that, prima facie, the forest officials had committed certain lapses. The team has also recorded its observations after conducting the spot inspection,” he said.
Vijayendra had earlier said that the BJP constituted a fact-finding team headed by former minister and state BJP working president Mahesh Tenginakai to examine the incident.
He also questioned the circumstances of the deaths and referred to photographs purportedly linked to the incident, claiming they appeared to indicate that at least one of the victims had been shot from close range.
The BJP leader’s allegations come amid questions over the circumstances in which the forest personnel allegedly opened fire on the four people in the Hanur forest. The official investigation, post-mortem findings and statements of the authorities and surviving witness are expected to establish the sequence of events. (ANI)
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