Bengaluru: They wanted the Muslim headmaster of a Kannada-medium government school in Karnataka to be removed or transferred.
So they devised a crooked plan to frame the headmaster – poisoning the school’s drinking water tank!
Police in Belgavi district arrested three people, including a Hindu right-wing group’s leader, for mixing poisonous material into the water tank of the school.
Eleven students from the government school in Belagavi’s Hullikatti village had to be hospitalised on July 20 after falling ill in school. Police said it came to light during the investigation that pesticide had been put in the school’s drinking water tank.
The accused — Sagar Patil of Sri Ram Sena, Krishna Madar and Magangouda Patil — told cops during interrogation that they had contaminated the school’s drinking water supply to have the Muslim headmaster transferred.
“Sagar Patil, the Savadatti taluk president of (Hindu right-wing group) Sri Ram Sena, wanted the Muslim headmaster to face serious charges leading to his transfer. To carry out the plan, he enlisted the help of Madar by blackmailing him over his relationship with a person from another community,” informed Belagavi superintendent of police (SP) Bhimashankar Guled.
The trio, detained by police on August 1, had allegedly purchased pesticide from a shop in Munavalli village on July 18.
