Family inheritance dispute leads to double homicide in Karnataka village
A retired army veteran and his engineer daughter were killed by relatives during a property dispute at a local gram panchayat office in Avaradi, Karnataka.
In the Karnataka district of Belagavi, a family feud over an inherited property escalated into a brutal attack at the Avaradi gram panchayat office. Retired soldier Rudrappa Kundaragi and his daughter Shashikala, an engineer, went there to verify documents related to the division of land left by Rudrappa’s deceased father. According to police, two of Rudrappa’s brothers, Basappa and Sangappa Kundaragi, and a nephew learned of his presence and confronted him, wielding an axe and a sickle.
When Shashikala tried to intervene, she was also struck. Both father and daughter died, and the driver accompanying them suffered severe injuries. Investigators link the violence to a long-standing dispute over how the estate should be split among three sons, compounded by previous land sales and perceived economic disparities among the siblings.
Why it matters
The case highlights how unresolved inheritance conflicts can erupt into deadly violence in rural India.
In this story
