The Hindu : Hiriyur violence: 74 arrested; security tightened

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 27, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Hiriyur violence: 74 arrested; security tightened

By Our Staff Correspondent

HIRIYUR JULY 26. The Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order), Subhash Bharani, said here on Friday that 74 people had been arrested and 10 cases registered in connection with the violence in Hiriyur town on Thursday.

He told presspersons that as per a preliminary estimate, the damage to public property caused by arsonists was over Rs. 1.5 crore. The office of the Assistant Executive Engineer, KPTCL, suffered a loss of about Rs. 1 crore. The records in the office were gutted, he said.

Mr. Bharani said that according to the authorities, the Traveller's Bungalow suffered a loss of Rs. 16.5 lakh. There was also damage to government vehicles and office equipment, he added.

He said 70 policemen and officials were injured in stone pelting. The Hiriyur Tahsildar was among them.

He said that according to doctors at the District Government Hospital in Chitradurga, Rangaswamy (22) from Rangenahalli and Nagendrappa (40) from Eeshwaragere, who were injured in the police firing, were out of danger. Doctors had declared that no bullets were found in their legs. Mr. Bharani gave the name of the second victim of the police firing as Shivanna (35) of Hulitottilu of Chitradurga District.

He said the Assistant Commissioner of the district, Sayed Ali Razwi, who suffered a serious injury on his head in stone throwing, was shifted to Bangalore for treatment.

Mr. Bharani claimed that the Superintendent of Police, Chitradurga, had held talks with the leaders of organisations a few days before the day of the bandh (Thursday). They had only said they would be taking out a procession in the town and submitting a memorandum to the authorities concerned to cancel the licence given to a Chennai firm to set up a biomass-based power generation unit.

Mr. Bharani said the arsonists caused damage of Rs. 25 lakh to fire tenders, and set fire to a heritage building. Police were aware of the strong opposition of the local people to the setting up of the power unit. Enough police force had been deployed in the town to face the situation, he added.

Mr. Bharani said additional police force had been deployed in the town, and police were searching for persons responsible for Thursday's violence.

The Deputy Commissioner, C.N. Sitaram, the Inspector General of Police (Eastern Range), G. M. Hayatt, and the Superintendent of Police, S. Murugan, were present at the press conference.

Meanwhile, police sources said P. Chinnappa, driver of the car of the Superintendent of Police, Chitradurga, whose left eye was badly damaged in stone throwing, was shifted to the Bapuji Hospital in Davangere for treatment.

Kashinath Adi, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Hiriyur, and Mohammad Gousi Hussain, driver of the Assistant Commissioner's jeep, are undergoing treatment at the District Government Hospital in Chitradurga.

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