Two arrested in Bengaluru for killing friend to avoid medical costs after injury
Bengaluru: Police have arrested two men for allegedly murdering their friend, a daily-wage labourer who had gone missing earlier this month, to avoid bearing the cost of his medical treatment after he suffered a spinal cord injury, officials said on Thursday.
The victim, Vinod Kumar (26), was found dead 16 days after his disappearance, with his body tied to a stone and dumped in a well at Vajarahalli in Magadi taluk under the Kudur police station limits in Bengaluru South district.
The accused, identified as Sudeep (19), a construction worker, and Prajwal (19), a car driver, are residents of Kalyanapura village in Magadi taluk, police said.
According to investigators, the three friends had gone to an agricultural farm on January 1 to celebrate the New Year and consumed alcohol. The accused allegedly asked Vinod to climb a coconut tree to pluck tender coconuts, during which he fell from a height of about 30 feet and suffered a serious spinal cord injury.
Police said the accused initially planned to take him home but later panicked, fearing villagers’ questions and the high cost of medical treatment. To avoid responsibility, they allegedly drowned Vinod in a nearby lake and later retrieved the body, tied it to a stone with wire, and dumped it into a well.
The body was discovered on January 17 after villagers noticed it and informed the police. Vinod’s grandfather had filed a missing-person complaint on January 2, following which police launched a search and analysed CCTV footage but found no major leads. Both were arrested on January 18 and remanded in police custody for further investigation, officials said.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Trouble ‘Miyas’ everywhere only then they will leave Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma
Says “Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP are openly against them, we are saying it openly
New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday said that four to five lakh “Miya voters” would be removed from the electoral rolls in the state once the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists is carried out. He also made a series of controversial remarks openly targeting the Miya community, a term commonly used in Assam in a derogatory sense to refer to Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an official programme in Digboi in Tinsukia district, Sarma said it was his responsibility to create difficulties for the Miya community and claimed that both he and the BJP were “directly against Miyas”.
“Four to five lakh Miya votes will have to be deleted in Assam when the SIR happens,” Sarma said, adding that such voters “should ideally not be allowed to vote in Assam, but in Bangladesh”. He asserted that the government was ensuring that they would not be able to vote in the state.
The chief minister was responding to questions about notices issued to thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims during the claims and objections phase of the ongoing Special Revision (SR) of electoral rolls in Assam. While the Election Commission is conducting SIR exercises in 12 states and Union Territories, Assam is currently undergoing an SR, which is usually meant for routine updates.
Calling the current SR “preliminary”, Sarma said that a full-fledged SIR in Assam would lead to large-scale deletion of Miya voters. He said he was unconcerned about criticism from opposition parties over the issue.
“Let the Congress abuse me as much as they want. My job is to make the Miya people suffer,” Sarma said. He claimed that complaints filed against members of the community were done on his instructions and that he had encouraged BJP workers to keep filing complaints.
“I have told people wherever possible they should fill Form 7 so that they have to run around a little and are troubled,” he said, adding that such actions were meant to send a message that “the Assamese people are still living”.
In remarks that drew further outrage, Sarma urged people to trouble members of the Miya community in everyday life, claiming that “only if they face troubles will they leave Assam”. He also accused the media of sympathising with the community and warned journalists against such coverage.
“So you all should also trouble, and you should not do news that sympathise with them. There will be love jihad in your own house.” He said.
The comments triggered reactions from opposition leaders. Raijor Dal president and MLA Akhil Gogoi said the people of Assam had not elected Sarma to keep one community under constant pressure. Congress leader Aman Wadud accused the chief minister of rendering the Constitution meaningless in the state, saying his remarks showed a complete disregard for constitutional values.
According to the draft electoral rolls published on December 27, Assam currently has 2.51 crore voters. Election officials said 4.78 lakh names were marked as deceased, 5.23 lakh as having shifted, and 53,619 duplicate entries were removed during the revision process. Authorities also claimed that verification had been completed for over 61 lakh households.
On January 25, six opposition parties the Congress, Raijor Dal, Assam Jatiya Parishad, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(M-L) submitted a memorandum to the state’s chief electoral officer. They alleged widespread legal violations, political interference and selective targeting of genuine voters during the SR exercise, describing it as arbitrary, unlawful and unconstitutional.
