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Case of ‘missing’ well hints at rising land-grabbing cases in Karnataka: Cops
Avinash H, police sub-inspector (law and order), Bantwal police station in Dakshina Kannada, further said that the police were taken aback as the complaint used the phrase “the well is missing”.
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A government official in Dakshina Kannada district on Friday lodged an unusual complaint alleging that a well “went missing”, which has brought the limelight to the practice of land grabbing across the state.
Based on the complaint lodged by Nelyadka Panchayat Development Officer (PDO) Shivagondappa Birader on Friday, an FIR was registered in the case, officials of the Bantwal Town Police station said.
Avinash H, police sub-inspector (law and order), Bantwal police station, further said that the police were taken aback as the complaint used the phrase “the well is missing”.
“We were taken aback, too, since we hadn’t heard of a well going missing before. The complaint said that the well was constructed at Nelyadka, Narikombu gram panchayat limits during 2012-13 for the public at a cost package of ₹73,305, and it had gone missing. It was perplexing,” he said.
The officer said that the facts of the case emerged as the police probed further. “The claim that the well had gone missing is true, but it learnt that it was closed by someone on purpose,” the officer added.
PDO Birader told police that the well was constructed under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Project several years ago and it was providing drinking water for people living in the vicinity. However, some differences developed between the elected members of the panchayat and the panchayat administration.
In the final draft of the complaint submitted before the police, the PDO claimed that a member of the Nelyadka panchayat Dayananda Poojary illegally closed the well. “The well, constructed using public funds, was illegally closed by Dayananda Poojary and grabbed the land with the well. Therefore, legal action should be taken against Dayananda Poojary, who has caused loss to the government by closing the well,” stated the PDO in the complaint.
The sub-inspector said that based on the complaint, a case has been registered under section 431 of the Indian Penal Code, which prescribes the punishment for mischief by injury to a public road, bridge, river or channel.
Accordingly, the police have summoned Poojary to the station, where his statement will be recorded. “As far as we understand the well was located on a public land and some differences within the administration have led to the disappearing of the well,” said the officer.
In a similar incident in August 2021, residents of Thambu Chetty Palya had lodged a complaint claiming that a bus stop had gone missing overnight.
The bus shelter, constructed by the Lions Club of Bangalore, Hoyasala Nagar, in 2016, disappeared on August 31, 2021.
Residents also staged a silent protest demanding the police take action against the people responsible for its erasure. The bus shelter was built at a cost of ₹1.50 lakh.
The police suspected that the bus stop was stolen for selling the metal. A case was registered but no arrests were in the case.
In 2014, Bengaluru reported a case of a missing bus stop.
A 20-year-old bus stop had gone missing in BEML Layout III Stage, Rajarajeshwarinagar, south Bengaluru.
While the BBMP, the city’s civic body, alleged that it has been stolen, police took custody of a few people for stealing the property fabricated from steel.
