Bengaluru, Oct 15: The chairman of an educational institution was hacked to death on Sunday, October 14, by a six-member gang in front of students and others inside his school at Agrahara Dasarahalli in Bengaluru.
K R Ranganath Nayak (64), a resident of Housing Board Colony near Rajajinagar and a native of Pavagada, bought Maruthi Public School from his friend in 2003 after retiring as an assistant manager in RBI. He rechristened it Havanur Public School.
The incident took place around 10.30 am on Sunday when Nayak and school administrative staff were having a meeting with his neighbour Rajashekar over a property issue. The six assailants barged into the meeting room and assaulted Nayak.
His administrative staff Lokesh Gowda and assistant Yathish rushed to his rescue but they were also attacked. Gowda and Yathish escaped with stab injuries and were admitted to a nearby hospital.
There was pandemonium on the school campus as scores of children attending special classes during the holiday were witness to the murder and ran helter-skelter.
Police swung into action to arrest the prime accused within five hours of the incident. Search is on for the others involved in the murder, said to have been triggered by a property dispute. DCP (west) Ravi D Channannavar identified the prime accused as Muniraju alias Babli (25) who has five cases against his name in several city police stations.
On a tip-off, Magadi Road police inspector R Hemanth Kumar and his team tried to capture the accused near Kirloskar Poultry Road near Mahalakshmi Layout but Muniraju assaulted police constables Naveen and Srinivas with deadly weapons. The inspector fired thrice in self-defence, injuring Muniraju on the legs. Police later shifted Muniraju to Victoria Hospital.
Preliminary investigations revealed that a property attached to Nayak’s school premises was under dispute. It was alleged that one of his neighbours, Gangamma, encroached on a portion of the land and the dispute was before the court.
Even as the dispute remained at the court, Gangamma died and her sons Prasad and Mahesh followed the case.
Recently, the court ruled in favour of Nayak and ordered the authorities to demolish the disputed building. This prompted the two men to hold a grudge on Nayak.
Police suspect that Prasad and his gang planned the murder and have formed a special team to nab the missing accused. They also believe Muniraj was hired to kill Nayak, though they are yet to ascertain the motive.
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