Twin Tumakuru murders that didn’t shake Karnataka

By TA Ameerudheen

Gowramma’s small world came crashing down on April 22. The frail 55-year-old woman lost her balance and fell down on the floor when someone told her that her 31-year-old son Girish Mudalagiriyappa’s mutilated body was found floating in a pond off Sira-Nelligere road in Peddenahalli village in Karnataka’s Tumakuru district.

Ever since, she has been asking just two questions to people who come to meet her: “Who killed my son? Why did they kill him?”

Fifteen kilometres away, in Manchaldore village in the district, 60-year-old Chikkathayamma too has been grieving the loss of her only son, Girish PM. The 30-year-old’s body was found on April 22 a few metres away from the pond where Mudalagiriyappa’s body was spotted. Chikkathayamma too raised the same questions when this correspondent met her on April 26: “Who killed my son? And why?”

Mudalagiriyappa and Girish knew each other since they worked in a brick kiln in Tumakuru. The two lost their jobs when the factory was closed down during the Covid-19-induced lockdown.

Following this, Mudalagiriyappa, who belonged to the Scheduled Caste community of Madiga, turned to manual scavenging while Girish, who belonged to the Scheduled Tribe community of Nayaka, began doing odd jobs for a living.

On April 21, Girish visited Mudalagiriappa’s house at Peddenahalli. Gowramma had served them dinner and as the two were about to hit the sack around 10.30 pm, Nadish, a villager who belongs to the Lingayat community, asked the duo to come for some urgent work. The two accompanied Nandish, but they never came back home.

Legs burnt first
At 1:48 am on April 22, Mudalagiriappa’s brother, Shridhar, woke up from sleep when his mobile phone rang incessantly. He lives in Adhalgere, which lies 20km from Peddenahalli. The caller was Chandra Das, who informed him that a group of people from Thigalar community (Other Backward Class), along with other persons, were assaulting Mudalagiriyappa and his friend in a farmland off Sira-Nelligere road, alleging that the duo had stolen water pumps and accessories from the area.

The caller gave Shridhar graphical description of the torture.

The mob first burnt their legs and upper body with dried coconut leaves just to ensure that the captives would not run away from their custody. Then they picked stumps and beat the duo to death.

Stains of blood could be still seen on the coconut leaves and bamboo sticks in the farmland where Tumakuru Police had erected many ‘do not cross’ tape barricades.

“Look, those were my brother’s slippers,” Shridhar said, pointing to vital evidence. “He must have lost them during the torture. The police haven’t collected it so far. Then how can we expect that they will punish the murderers?” he asked.

Injuries all over
Shridhar had reached the murder spot early in the morning and was shocked to see the kind of injuries on the two bodies.

“Mudalagiriappa’s body was burnt along his back from neck to buttocks. Blood clots were seen around his eyes, nose and mouth. Almost all his body parts bore injury marks,” he recounted.

Lokamma, Girish’s elder sister, echoed Shridhar. “Girish’s knee cap was completely shaterred. I saw deep cut injuries on his feet. The mob did not show any mercy to my brother,” she said.

Families of the deceased said that the investigative officer took their signatures on a blank paper during the preparation of the inquest mahazar. “That was done to scuttle the probe. The upper-caste investigative officers will act according to the wishes of the murderers who belong to an upper-caste,” Lokamma said.

Tumakuru District Superintendent of Police Rahulkumar Shahapurwad, who is overseeing the investigation, however, denied allegations of any caste bias. He said the probe is progressing well and 30 accused have been arrested till April 29 (Friday). “We arrested the main accused, Nandish, on April 28 from Tumakuru. We will arrest the remaining accused soon. The probe is being led by an able officer,” he said.

Members of the SC/ST communities, however, do not take the police claim at face value. For them, the one-week delay in arresting prime accused Nandish was ample proof of police high-handedness.

“We have serious apprehensions about the probe. The investigation officer is a Lingayat. So, I strongly feel that he will scuttle the probe to help the accused from uppercaste communities,” said Shridhar.

Orphaned families
With Girish’s death, Chikkathayamma has lost all male members in her family. Her husband (Girish’s father) passed aw