Video shows the tribes chasing the officer while his colleagues try to save him
Hyderabad:
A Circle Inspector of Police was attacked by a mob in the forest area of Khammam Reserve on Sunday when a police team went to check a law and order situation near Chandrapalem village in Telangana’s Sattupalem Mandal.
A group of local villagers went out to claim a salt flat for cultivation, when another group of non-locals filed a counterclaim.
As tensions rose and clashes broke out between the two groups, a team of ten to fifteen police officers and forest rangers arrived on the scene.
It is not yet clear why the specific officer was targeted.
A video showed a group of them dragging the recently appointed officer, dressed in civilian clothes, off his bicycle and hitting him with fists as another officer tried to pull him away.
The clip goes on to show the tribes chasing him, while uniformed officers try to rescue the Circle Inspector.
A senior officer, who asked not to be quoted, said they were investigating why only the Circle Inspector was targeted and whether it was a conspiracy.
In November 2022, a forest officer Chalamala Srinivas Rao was attacked and killed by tribals with sticks and knives. The then Chief Minister KCR had announced a compensation of Rs 50 lakh for the family of the victims.
Two men involved in the murder of forest ranger Chalamala Srinivasa Rao were sentenced to life imprisonment by Chief District and Sessions Judge Patil Vasanth in August 2023.
The incident took place on November 22, 2022 on the outskirts of Chandrugonda Mandal village in Errabolu Guthikonda.
The court found the suspects, Madakam Tula and Podium Nanga, belonging to the Goti Koya community, guilty under Articles 302 (murder), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharging his duty) and 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) of the Indian Penal Code. The court imposed a fine of 1,000 euros on the offenders.