Kundapur: Man shot dead in forest, four friends arrested
Silvester D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Kundapur
Kundapur, Aug 11: A person who had reportedly gone hunting on Saturday August 10 night was found shot dead under mysterious circumstances at the edge of a forest in Kaikana, Vandse here on Sunday August 11 morning.
The deceased has been identified as Prabhakar Achari (28), son of Sheena Achari and resident of Hadimane in Noojady here.
It is said that on Saturday night, Prabhakar went to bed after having dinner. At around 9.30 pm, his friends Nagaraj Poojary, Sunder Poojary, Santosh Poojary and Raju Poojary, all residents of Noojady, called him to accompany them on a hunt. On earlier occasions too, he had gone hunting with them, and hence he got up and left with them.
However, he did not return home till morning, and efforts to search for him by anxious family members went in vain.
Meanwhile, two of the persons who had accompanied him in the hunt, Nagaraj and Sunder, surrendered themselves before the Kundapur police. It was only then that the incident came to light. Santosh and Raju had gone missing, but were arrested after a search by the police.
It is learnt that a single barrel muzzle loading gun registered in the name of Babu Poojary, father of Nagaraj Poojary, was used in the crime.
The crime spot comes under Vandse gram panchayat and is in the limits of Kollur police station. The victim was a resident of Noojady which falls under Gangolli police station. The accused surrendered themselves before the Kundapur town police. All this resulted in confusion among the police for sometime, however, later personnel of all the three police stations visited the spot along with the circle inspector and DySP.
The incident took place in an acacia plantation belonging to the forest department. It is situated besides a pond at Kaikana on Noojady-Aloor road. The locals as well as the victim's family suspect that Prabhakar was killed with some motive. Two whisky bottles of 180 ml and 90 ml were found at the spot, indicating that the hunting team was probably drunk. Also, 7 - 8 bullet marks were found on Prabhakar's body. A black torch he was holding was found near his head. Examination of the body revealed that Prabhakar might have died at once, as the bullets had pierced his vital organs.
Udupi SP Dr Boralingaiah visited the spot as soon as he was informed of the incident. He later called a meeting of the officials in Kollur and instructed them about the future course of action. DySP Yashoda, Kundapur circle inspector Manjunath S, Byndoor circle inspector Arun B Naik, and other police personnel conducted investigations. Manipal forensic team also arrived.
The body was shifted to Manipal for post-mortem.
Kollur police have registered a case.