Daijiworld Media Network - Beltangady (SP)
Beltangady, Oct 23: The policemen have succeeded in clearing the air from the mystery of a suspected radical who visited the home of a woman named Shantamma this week, giving jitters to the localites. As the woman reportedly had a pistol in her possession, with five live rounds and that she spoke of murdering politicians and policemen, it was thought that she was either from the naxal gang or a LTTE cadre and the hence the policemen and the Anti-Naxal Force personnel had visited Shantamma's house and started investigations.
Ashalatha (25) had stayed in the house of Shantamma, living by the side of the Melantabettu government first grade college, for four days. She had asked Shantamma not to inform others of her presence and not to venture out as along as she stayed there. Shantamma had also said that the woman vanished into the forest at night.
After the policemen made enquiries with a lonely woman walking by the road on Wednesday October 22, they came to know that she was the same Ashalatha, who had sent shivers down their spine. After she was produced before Shantamma, they got confirmation that she was the same woman who had stayed in her house.
The policemen have since found out that Ashalata is the second wife of Gopal, who works with a scraps dealer at Ujire T B Cross. The first wife of Gopal has children and Asha does not. Asha was neglected at home and her entry into the house had been restricted. Therefore, she used to roam around and tried to satiate her hunger. It is also learnt that she had packed some food in paper and had, after placing the paper in a plastic pouch, hung it from her clothes near the waist, which Shantamma mistook for a pistol.
It is clear that other aspects of the story which Shantamma had narrated to the policemen were figments of her fertile imagination. Circle inspector Gangi Reddy confirmed that Ashalatha was a distressed woman and not a terrorist on the prowl.