Five arrested for chopping MGNREGA officer's hand

The Times of India Bengaluru d. 19/9/16
BENGALURU: Nearly a week after the horrific incident, five contractors were arrested for chopping the right hand of an honest officer for refusing to clear inflated bills.

On September 15, The Times of India reported about HR Srinivas, who is a technical consultant engineer for implementing the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), and how he paid a price for his honesty.
On Sunday, Kudur police confirmed the arrests of Channakeshava, Lakshmana, Manjunath, Punith Chamanna, all aged between 21 and 31 years. They have been slapped with IPC sections 307 (attempt to murder), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) , 34 (common intention of committing a crime). 
The angry contractors had tried in every possible way to get the inflated bills passed, but when they saw 53-year-old Srinivas refusing to toe their line, they attacked him and chopped off his right hand with a machete when he was on his way home. Srinivas was admitted to a hospital in Basaveshwaranagar, Bengaluru, before he was discharged three days ago.
ppointed to Kunigal taluk in T umakuru district, Srinivas discover ed some illegalities in the MGNREGA scheme, and when he tried to raise his voice against them, he paid a heavy price. Srinivas's job was to give technical sanctions to the works undertaken and to check measurements. He's the h ead of a team of five engineers and it's his finding which determines how much the contractors are paid, based on their quality of work.
One of the accused, Channa Keshava, had barged into the taluk office and warned Srinivas of dire consequences if he reduced the amount. Srinivas told him that he used poor-quality construction materials and didn't deserve the estimated amount. Channa Keshava threatened him and said: "I'll chop off your hand if you sign the modified bill." Undeterred, Srinivas and his senior decided to go by the rulebook.