Puttur: Four held for murdering photographer over land dispute

Puttur: The city police arrested four people for murdering a photographer over a land dispute.

The deceased identified as Jagadish (58) hailed from Mangaluru and resided at Subrahmanya Nagar, Mysuru. The accused are Balakrishna alias Subbaiah Rai from Paduvannur Patladka, his wife Jayalaxmi, son Prashanth, and Jeevan Prasad, a neighbour.

Jagadish used to occasionally visit Puttur to oversee an agricultural land owned by him at Kunjoor Panja in Aryapu village. On November 18 morning, he had arrived at his property but did not return home.

Tense over his mysterious disappearance, Jagadish’s brother Shashidhar filed a missing report in Sampya police station here.

While investigating the case the police found that a land dispute between Jagadish and Balakrishna alias Subbaiah Rai, both of who were related to each other, led to Jagadish’s murder.

On the day of the incident, a verbal spat had taken place between Jagadish and Balakrishna which then escalated into a fight. Jagadish was assaulted in the head with a hammer and he died on the spot.

Later the three accused buried his body in Maguli protected forest nearby. The spot where the body was buried was just 300 meters away from their house.