Overview
- Forest personnel encountered four men in the Shagya range of the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary and three were shot dead during an exchange of fire on Saturday, August 15, according to Karnataka officials.
- Karnataka has opened a magistrate-led inquiry and forest ministers say two country-made pistols and bags of suspected deer meat were seized at the scene.
- Hanur police registered an FIR under Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita after a murder complaint by the wife of one deceased and one injured man was later found admitted to a Mysuru hospital.
- Families and villagers rejected the forest department’s version, staged protests that included damage to the Shagya sub-range office, and demanded an independent investigation and compensation.
- The episode has drawn sharp political intervention from Tamil Nadu leaders who demand a high-level probe, raising the prospect of a sustained interstate dispute and underscoring how post-mortems, forensics and the inquiry will decide competing narratives.