Farmer dies in custody, SI shifted

By Our Staff Reporter

KHAMMAM, MAY 30. Tension prevailed in Penuballi village as a farmer died in police custody on Wednesday. Police forces were deployed in the village as an irate mob laid a siege to the police station holding the sub-inspector of the station responsible for the death of Pandi Tirupataiah, 40, who was picked up from Ramachandrarao Banjar village in connection with a land dispute.

The protesters staged a rasta roko at the Penuballi crossroads holding up vehicular traffic. Large number of lorries and buses were stranded on the Khammam- Aswaraopet road and Tiruvur- Palvancha road near the crossroads till 8 p.m. The Sathupalli sub divisional police officer, Mr. N. Venkateswar Rao, who reached the village immediately, tried to pacify the protesters by assuring an enquiry into the incident, but they did not relent.

The Additional Superintendent of Police, Mr. G. Sudheerbabu, and the Khammam RDO, Mr. Koti Reddy, rushed to the village on information about the incident and efforts were on till late in the evening to defuse tension. According to reports reaching here, the farmer had strained relations with his cousins because of a dispute over the landholding in their possession. The farmer was summoned to the police station and questioned following a complaint by his cousins. Later, the police shifted him to hospital, where he was declared dead.

As news spread to the village, large number of people assembled in front of the police station. They demanded action against the sub-inspector and payment of ex-gratia to the farmer's family. They kept the body in the middle of the road till 8.30 p.m. The Superintendent of Police, Mr. K. Raja Ratnam Naidu, said that the disputes between the farmer and his cousins had been persisting for the past five years. He quarreled with his cousins- Kistaiah and Prasad - many a time and the police booked cases against them. He explained that the farmer was summoned to the station along with his cousins in connection with the same property disputes following a fresh complaint against him.

As the sub-inspector, who was preoccupied with some documentation work, asked them to wait for a while in the station premises, Tirupataiah slipped into the new building of the police station which was under construction nearby, and consumed pesticide. He said he might have brought the pesticide can with him being mentally prepared for the desperate act.

Though the sub-inspector, Mr. S. V. Ramanamurthy, shouldered the responsibility of taking him to hospital, the protesters put the blame on him. No injuries were found on the body. However, the sub-inspector would be shifted from the station immediately to defuse tension.

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Section  : Southern States
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