Police open fire at 28-year-old man, case filed

Police said Mohammed Faizal Jafar, 28, a fruit vendor and resident of Kalaburagi, was seen threatening locals with knives at around 9 pm on Saturday.

Police in Kalaurgi city opened fire at a man allegedly threatening passerby at a public market, officials said on Monday, adding that the man has suffered injuries to his leg.

Police in Kalaurgi city opened fire at a man allegedly threatening passerby at a public market, officials said on Monday. (Agencies/Representative use)

Police said Mohammed Faizal Jafar, 28, a fruit vendor and resident of Kalaburagi, was seen threatening locals with knives at around 9 pm on Saturday.

Based on a complaint call received later in the night, a sub-inspector and a few other police officers from Chowk Police station, who were in the area, reached the location. The area comes under Brahmapura police station limits.

A video of the incident has since gone viral on social media.

In the video, police are seen approaching the man asking him to put the weapon down. Later, sub-inspector Wahid Kothwal is seen removing his service pistol, the video showed.

The video further showed that the officer missed the first shot but his second shot hit Jafar’s limbs, and another policeman managed to remove the weapon from his hands. The officer is then seen firing another round at the man’s other leg while he is on the ground. HT has seen the video and can verify its authenticity.

Kalaburagi city police commissioner R Chetan told the media that the police fired at Fazal in self-defence.

“Control room received a call about Fazal roaming with knives and threatening the general public. As police reached the spot, they asked him to drop the weapons, but he was trying to attack the public near a supermarket. When he did not listen to the police and tried to attack, the police opened fire at his leg. He was taken into custody and later shifted to a government hospital for treatment,” he said.

The officer said they are yet to ascertain the reason behind the man’s actions, but family members claimed he was mentally unstable and had not been treated for it.

“He has been shifted to the hospital. We are yet to collect the details of the accused. Once we get them, we will share them,” the commissioner told the media.

Brahmapura police have registered a case under section 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and are investigating the matter.

When asked about police opening fire on the leg when the suspect was unarmed, a senior officer at the Karnataka police headquarters said that no probe will be ordered into the incident. “The officer has acted as per the law. Even though there were several onlookers there, no one reacted. So, he had to take action. He has opened fire to bring the situation under control. There will not be an able probe,” he said.