HASSAN: Two people were arrested after they opened fire at a group of people who had gone fishing in the Hemavati river at Tambalagere village in Yeslur hobli of Sakaleshpur taluk on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Nagaraj and Anil. On November 30, Naveen was illegally transporting sand, and the police raided and seized the tractor and registered a case. Naveen suspected Nagaraj of the same village of giving information about the sand mafia to the police and repeatedly quarrelled with Nagaraj. Since Nagaraj was handicapped, Naveen threatened to break his leg. Enraged by this, Nagaraj hatched a plan to murder him.
On January 10, Nagaraj called Naveen and asked about his whereabouts. At that time, Nagaraj said that he had gone to catch fish. Nagaraj took Anil, a daily wage worker, saying that he had a job. Naveen, Dayananda, Padmanabha and Rajachari had gone fishing at night in the Hemavati river and they were sitting in front of a bonfire. Nagaraj identified Naveen, who was talking on the phone and shot at him while two others were injured. Nagaraj then called their car driver and got them admitted to a hospital.
Nagaraj admitted the victims to a hospital to avoid suspicion against him also to mislead the police. But the Yeslur police cracked the case and established that the reason for the murder was personal rivalry. The police have seized the gun used for the murder.