Mysuru: Chamarajanagar district police have registered two cases in connection with a confrontation between villagers and forest department staff over a tiger capture operation. The incident had occured in Bommalapura village near Gundlupet on Sept 9.Police have registered the first case against five villagers who allegedly locked forest officials inside a Tumakuru cage that had been set up to trap a tiger prowling the area. The foresters alleged that they were locked inside the cage when they arrived in the village to capture the tiger.According to Gundlupet police, the FIR was registered against the five persons based on a complaint lodged by deputy range forest officer (DRFO) M Gnanashekhara, who accused the villagers of obstructing govt officials from performing their duty and threatening them.Meanwhile, based on a counter-complaint filed by the villagers, police have registered a second FIR against 15 forest department personnel. The villagers alleged that the foresters assaulted them for questioning the delay in trapping the tiger. They alleged that one villager was nearly run over by a forest department jeep, amounting to an attempt to murder.The villagers complained to the cops that the tiger has been prowling in and around the village for the last one- and-a-half month. They expressed frustration that despite multiple sightings of the tiger and repeated complaints, the forest officials failed to act. Police informed that both cases have been registered under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and that a detailed investigation is under way.
