Asnotikar meets ACF Madan Naik’s family

Fisheries minister Anand Asnotikar on Saturday met the family of the slain assistant conservator of forests, Madan Naik at Belikeri in Ankola taluk.

He said: “Just an hour after the brutal murder of Naik, forest minister CP Yogeshwar and I met chief minister Sadananda Gowda and requested him to give necessary compensation and Naik’s family member a job in the forest department on compassionate grounds.”

The director general of police has also been asked to conduct an inquiry into the murder and the alleged involvement of a police official from Dandeli in hushing up the role of a policemen in the murder. “I met the family and promised to help them,” Asnotikar said. Police officers at Dandeli station could have saved Naik, who was attacked by a group of drunken revelers at the Crocodile Park, had they shifted him to the hospital on time. They made him wait for six hours despite the severe head injury he suffered during the assault by the revelers. They shifted him to the hospital only after he collapsed at 10.30 pm due an internal blood clot, said doctors who carried out the postmortem.

The police have also not withdrawn the case of atrocity filed against Naik even after his death. “ The police should seek advice from their legal cell before continuing with the case,”  said Narasimha Nayak, an advocate at Dandeli.