Beltangady: Naxal Encounter - ANF Staff Mane Killed by Police Bullet?
Daijiworld Media Network – Belthangady (PS)
With inputs from Udayavani
Beltangady, Oct 11: ANF staff Mahadeva S Mane who died during a Naxal encounter in the thick forest of Manjala area in Navoor village of Savanalu taluk here on Sunday October 9, may well have been killed by a bullet triggered by his own companions. Police investigation in this regard is on.
Reliable sources informed that during the combing operation, Mane’s ANF comrade fired a bullet that might have hit a tree or any other strong object first and richocheted towards Mane. This was purely unintentional, and it is now suspected that to hide the incident, the ANF staff fired a few more rounds of bullets at the trees to show an encounter that was actually less dramatic than it was made out to be.
This suspicion has raised mainly because the bullet retrieved from Mane’s body has been found to be from a gun used by police. Senior police officials have gathered information on this fact by talking to doctors who carried out the post mortem and have also spoken to forensic experts.
What happened at the spot?
At around 11.20 pm, a group of 10 people walked towards the trap set by police. The ANF team suspected them to be Naxalites and were about to attack, but as the men had flashlights, they detected police presence and began firing. The ANF too retaliated until the men disappeared into the forest. However, it is not certain if Mane was killed by the men or the police. The fact that he was hit on the back, points towards a possibility of the latter.
Western IGP Alok Mohan said that truth will be out only after assistant director general of police of internal security division Bipin Gopalkrishna investigates the case thoroughly.