The Kerala Police on Friday arrested nine personnel of the Fire and Rescue wing of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in connection with the death due to gunshot of a head constable of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) during a clash at the Kozhikode International Airport on Wednesday night.
However, the police have found evidence against the alleged CISF claim that the AAI men had shot head constable SS Yadav dead with the service pistol of CISF Sub-Inspector Sitaram Chowdhury after snatching it away from him. The police’s conclusions are based on the visuals found on the CCTV clippings from the airport premises.
“We are conducting an impartial probe. Everything is there on the CCTV clippings and that was exactly what had happened on that night. Cameras cannot lie,” said Kerala Police’s Additional DGP (North) N Shanker Reddy who was supervising the investigations being carried out by a special team into Wednesday’s incidents.
The arrested men belonged to a group of AAI officials whom the police had taken into custody on Thursday morning. Sources said that three persons – two Fire and Rescue men and a CISF inspector – undergoing treatment for injuries could be arrested soon. Four more persons had been asked to appear for questioning.
Those arrested have been charged under Section 304 of the IPC for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. They have also been charged with obstructing the official duty of the CISF. The police have reportedly concluded that the service pistol of Chowdhury, which caused the death, was in his possession when it went off accidentally amidst the scuffle.
Chowdhury suffered injury in his left hand as the bullet passed through it before hitting the head constable. Forensic analysis reportedly suggested that the pistol was still in the hand of the CISF inspector when it went off causing the death. Airport Employees Union leaders complained that the police had arrested their colleagues without properly analyzing the CCTV clippings.
The Kozhikode airport had witnessed a violent clash on Wednesday night between Fire-and-Rescue and CISF personnel. After the death of their colleague, angry CISF men attacked AAI staff members by hunting them down, vandalized the AAI offices in the airport and even damaged the Air Traffic Control station, forcing an eight-hour shutdown of the airport.
The police took control of the airport security late Wednesday night and flight operations resumed on Thursday morning. CCTV clippings showed CISF men smashing glass panes of AAI offices and damaging other things. Total loss in the clash, according to sources, could come to over Rs 2 crore.
In a preliminary report submitted to DGP TP Senkumar, ADGP Reddy said that there was no reason to believe that security lapse had occurred at the Kozhikode airport. What had happened at the airport was a clash between two sections of personnel. There was no involvement of any external elements and hence there was no security lapse, the report said.
The CCTV clippings suggested that the scuffle which ended in the violent clash was initiated by a CISF man amid his bid to frisk a Fire officer as he tried to enter the airport through the VIP gate. The clippings also showed Fire and Rescue men manhandling Chowdhury, who un-holstered his pistol probably as a self-defence measure.
AAI employees said that Chowdhury was known for his rude ways of frisking the airport staff in the name of security. a communication manager of the AAI at Kozhikode airport had lodged a complaint with the airport director on April 24 against Chowdhury after he allegedly harassed him in the name of frisking.