Incident Overview
BIDAR: A 42-year-old Dalit man was allegedly killed with an axe in Bidar district over a dispute on goats damaging crops, with police arresting four men and invoking provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The assault took place between noon and 1 pm on Thursday in Jirgyal village of Bhalki taluk, according to Bidar superintendent of police Pradeep Gunti. The four accused, all residents of the village, were taken into custody later that evening.
Police identified the accused as Pradeep Vamanrao Ladhe, 52, Rajkumar Muralidhar Biradar, 42, Sharad Vamanrao Ladhe, 45, and Shubham Sharad Ladhe, 25.
The case was registered at Mekhkar police station on a complaint filed by the deceased man’s mother, Sushila Vithalrao Shinde. It includes charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for murder, voluntarily causing hurt, intentional insult and acts done with common intention, along with provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The immediate dispute, according to the complaint and police, was over goats entering an agricultural field and damaging crops.
Police said the victim had allowed his goats to graze in a field belonging to Pradeep Ladhe several days before the killing. Ladhe objected to the damage to his crops and reprimanded him. An argument followed.
{{/usCountry}}Police said the victim had allowed his goats to graze in a field belonging to Pradeep Ladhe several days before the killing. Ladhe objected to the damage to his crops and reprimanded him. An argument followed.
{{/usCountry}}The dispute resurfaced on Thursday, when the victim went to graze his goats in another field belonging to Angad Dadarav Biradar. He arrived at about 11 am, according to the complaint.
At around 12.15 pm, his younger brother Mahendra went to the field to take him food. About 15 minutes later, Mahendra called his family in panic and said that four men from the village had arrived at the spot.
The complaint alleges that the men abused the victim using caste related slurs.
Police said the confrontation was also linked to an earlier dispute involving Ladhe’s wife. According to the Superintendent of Police, the victim was reportedly a habitual drinker and his loud behaviour had frightened the accused’s wife.
“The accused, Pradeep, had allegedly told the deceased not to abuse his wife. This led to resentment, and Pradeep was holding a grudge against him,” Gunti told HT.
Police allege that Ladhe then attacked the victim with an axe, striking him on the head and causing a severe injury.
Two other accused, Rajkumar Biradar and Sharad Ladhe, allegedly restrained the victim by holding his legs and twisting them, according to the complaint. Sharad is also accused of kicking him in the back.
By the time the victim’s mother and father reached the field, he was dead, according to the complaint. He had suffered a severe injury to his head. The accused had left the scene, police said.
Gunti said the four accused were arrested on Thursday evening and that the investigation was continuing.
The caste related allegations form part of the complaint filed by the victim’s mother and are among the allegations being investigated by police.
The police account also places the killing against a dispute that had begun several days earlier over livestock and crop damage. According to the complaint, the initial confrontation occurred after the goats entered Ladhe’s field and damaged crops.
Police have not indicated that the investigation has established all the allegations in the complaint. The four accused remain in custody while investigators examine the circumstances of the assault and the allegations of caste based abuse.