Daijiworld Media Network – Raichur (SP)
Raichur, Feb 16: Kuppanna Melagiri (34), president of Lingsugur municipal council in the district, committed suicide by consuming poison on Tuesday February 15. His family members have alleged that Melagiri committed suicide, being unable to bear the mental torture caused to him by the councillors.
On Tuesday February 15, Malagiri, who had been elected for the second term of the municipality from scheduled tribe reservation category, visited the room of the vice-president, and consumed poison. In a short while, he started screaming, unable to bear the agony. The people rushed to the room and shifted him to a hospital, but to no avail. He is survived by wife, mother, and two daughters.
The family members said that the councillors had hatched a conspiracy to unseat him from the post since the day he was elected. The councillors had also threatened to move a no-confidence motion against him. Frustrated at these efforts, he ended his life, they said.
Kuppanna, who was working for the transport department in the past, had become municipal president six months back. Out of 23 seats in the municipality, 10 were bagged by the Congress, while the other 13 were from the JDS. All the 13 JDS members changed loyalties and joined the Congress, after Kushtagi MLA, Amaregouda Bayyapur, joined the Congress.
The family members, supported by hundreds of Melagiri’s sympathizers and supporters, lashed out at the efforts of the policemen to register it as a case of unnatural death. The town turned tense for some time. MP, Sanna Pakirappa, discussed the issue with the superintendent of police, and promised the people that investigation would be conducted into the causes of the municipal president’s death.
The works of the council were hit, after the deputy commissioner (DC) seized documents and ordered stoppage of all development works. This had happened after Kuppanna brought to the notice of the DC allegations of irregularities during the previous term. The chief officer of the municipality stands suspended. This problem, along with the pressure brought by the councillors of his own party, is said to have led to consternation for the municipal president.
A case now stands registered against eight people, out of whom six are municipal councillors. Councillors, Basavaraj Guttedar, Mallamma Amaresh Maddi, Maohar Raddi, Anees Pasha, Sharanagouda Patil, and Rajashekhar Palleda, along with Manappa Kuppanna and Durugappa Hanumant have been named as accused. Shantamma, mother of the deceased, had complained to the policemen that these people used to repeatedly pose telephonic threats to her son to move no-confidence motion against him.