Man Booked For Illegal Goat Sacrifice

WARANGAL: Police booked a man, Sunkari Suresh, for allegedly killing a goat near the Venkateshwara Swamy Temple at Narsampet in Warangal district during Dasara festivities. The incident took place on the evening of October 2, coinciding with Gandhi Jayanti. A complaint by constable Oruganti Raju said about 1,000 people had gathered for an unauthorised event when Suresh and others brought a goat and beheaded it with a sword, despite police attempts to stop them.

Meanwhile, the Stray Animal Foundation of India (SAFI) lodged a separate complaint with the Warangal police commissioner, alleging that the circle inspector and sub-inspector of Narsampet police station were present and may have been complicit in the act. SAFI member A. Goutham urged departmental action, saying law enforcers must not become lawbreakers. Police have begun investigating both the case against Suresh and the allegations against their own officers.

Erragadda locals oppose burial ground move

Hyderabad: Residents of four gated communities in Erragadda staged a protest on Tuesday against the demolition of a compound wall and removal of a gate to make way for a Muslim burial ground on 7,100 sq. yards of Waqf-notified land in the Jubilee Hills constituency. The site is proposed as an alternative to a 2,500 sq. yard plot earlier identified at Shaikpet.

Residents said the lane between Kalpataru and Brigade Citadel communities had been gifted to GHMC for better connectivity for 4,000 families to the surrounding colonies. “The gate and wall were removed by officials during a survey,” said K. Vishnuvardhan, president of the Brigade Citadel Association. “If a burial ground comes up here, we will be forced to live next to it, which is unacceptable.”

Around 400 residents, joined by BJP MP Raghunandan Rao, protested and filed a complaint at Sanath Nagar police station. They said they would approach the court if authorities fail to act.

Former Kalpataru Residents’ Association president Chekuru Hanumanthu Naidu said the disputed land in Survey Nos. 78 and 79, once leased to Kohinoor Glass Company, originally belonged to Paigah estates. “Only 12 old graves exist from 1936 to 1965, and none after that. The claimants lost their case in 2008 and failed to produce documents when they appealed in 2019. In 2013, the court ordered that no one should interfere with the land,” he said.

He added that there is now no access road to the graves, which are surrounded by two function halls. “Despite gifting a 40-foot road to GHMC for public use, our gate and wall have been removed. We demand that the land not be used for burials,” he said.