Bengaluru, Aug. 16 -- Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday termed the death of three suspected poachers in a forest firing incident in Chamarajanagar district as an apparent "cold-blooded murder" and demanded an SIT inquiry conducted under the supervision of a High Court judge.

Speaking to reporters about the Chamarajanagar forest encounter, Bommai said people living on the fringes of forests often depend on forest resources for their livelihood and alleged that merely entering a forest does not justify shooting them, particularly at close range.

"Unfortunately, the people who are living on the edge of the forest, a lot of their livelihood depends on the forest also. Just because...