Belagavi/Karnataka: Three people, including a Sri Rama Sena leader, have been arrested in the case of poisoning a water tank in a government school with an alleged malicious plot to transfer a Muslim headmaster. The incident took place at a primary school in Hulikatti village in Belagavi, Karnataka. Sri Rama Sena taluk president Sagar Patil, Krishna Madar and Nagana Gowda Patil were arrested.
On July 14, several children aged between seven and ten years fell ill after drinking water at the Government Lower Primary School in Janata Colony. 13 of them were admitted to the hospital. The headmaster, Sulaiman Gurainai, then filed a complaint at the Soundatti police station.
The accused, among whom the Sri Rama Sena president Sagar Patil is the mastermind in the crime, had been trying to transfer Sulaiman Gurainai, the headmaster of LP School for the last 13 years. Sagar Patil had recruited Krishna Madar into the conspiracy by threatening to expose his relationship with a girl from another caste. He also implicated his relative, Nagana Gowda Patil, in the incident. It was Sagar Patil who gave Krishna Madar the poison bottle. Krishna Madar lured a child studying in class 5 to commit the crime. The child told the police that Madar had given him a packet of chips, chocolate and Rs 500. The police said that the accused were using the innocent minor child to commit the heinous crime. The bottle used to mix the poison was found on the school premises.
Belagavi District Superintendent of Police Dr. Bhimshankar S. Gulade said that the incident took place on July 14. The SP said that Sagar Patil planned the incident purely in the name of religion and that the act was to transfer Sulaiman Gorinayak, the headmaster of the government school in the village, where 41 students study.
Expressing shock over the incident, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that it is unbelievable that even children are being targeted in the name of religious hatred. He also demanded that the BJP, which is sowing the seeds of religious hatred for political gains, should be prepared to face trial.