Thiruvananthapuram, June 12: Nine fire-service personnel were arrested today over a CISF jawan's death at Kerala's Karipur airport during a brawl with the central force, with police suggesting the blaze-fighters started the clash.
The images, though, are not clear enough to reveal how exactly and who was responsible for a gun going off during the scuffle that started with a war of words over frisking firemen, killing CISF trooper S.S. Yadav.
The nine firemen, all employees of the Centre-owned Airports Authority of India, do not include two key suspects now in hospital after being injured in the clash. The nine have been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and obstructing a public servant from discharging duty, punishable with up to 10 years in jail. Sources said more arrests were likely.
Additional DGP N. Sankar Reddy said "it was clear from CCTV visuals how the clash started and how it ended".
In a report to the Union home ministry on the clash - which had forced some incoming flights to be diverted after the fire personnel blocked the runway with fire tenders - the state police chief is learnt to have blamed the blaze-fighters for starting the trouble.
The footage shows the row started at 9.32pm on Wednesday when Sitaram Choudhary, a CISF sub-inspector now in hospital, tried to stop a fire safety official, Ajikumar, enter the terminal through the VIP gate without being frisked.
A little later, around 20 firemen arrive and start attacking Choudhary, who then pulls out his 9mm pistol. Yadav, who tries to intervene, is seen falling to the ground at 9.44pm after being hit by the bullet. Choudhary is learnt to have suffered a hand injury.
Initial reports suggested that another fireman, Sunny Thomas, had walked in and objected to being checked. Today, the police cited the CCTV images to say it was Ajikumar who had challenged the CISF men, though Sunny was involved in the brawl too. Both are in hospital.
Both sides tried to interpret the fuzzy shooting footage their way, with the CISF blaming the firemen who, in turn, termed it "accidental".
