The investigations into the firing at the Art of Living (AoL) campus of Sri Sri Ravishankar on Sunday evening shows it was not an attack, said Karnataka Police Chief Ajai Kumar Singh.
The Art of Living campus is located about 30 km away from Bangalore City off Kanakapura Road.
"I term it as an incident, not an attack. This can be inferred from the trajectory of the bullet and the distance from which it was fired," said Mr. Singh, the Director General and Inspector General of Police, told reporters on Monday.
Narrating the sequence of events, Mr. Singh said a person called Vinay Kumar from the ashram heard the sound of firing and found his thigh injured. He said the incident occurred between 6.05 p.m. and 6.10 p.m., about five minutes after Sri Sri Ravishankar left the venue of the satsang in a car.
"There is no bleeding on his [Vinay Kumar] thigh. There is discoloration of skin," said Mr. Singh. It appeared as though the bullet had grazed his leg and had been fired from a distance of 700 meters. There were others standing with Vinay Kumar and it also looked as if the shot had been aimed high. "It looks like a dead bullet," he said.
After the incident Mr. Kumar informed the security in-charge and around 9.15 p.m. the AoL authorities called the police.
A team of policemen including the Inspector General of Police (Central) and Superintendent of Police B.A. Mahesh arrived at the spot with personnel from the Forensic Science Laboratory around 11 p.m.
Mr. Singh said the bullet had been fired from a 0.32 pistol and was not of the country-made variety. The jurisdictional Ramanagara police has taken up the case under the Indian Arms Act. "As the bullet hit Vinay Kumar, we have taken up a case under Section 307 (causing grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code," Mr. Singh added.
The police has been talking to other ashramites , including Sri Sri Ravishankar. Nobody, including Vinay Kumar, had seen the person who fired the gun, Mr. Singh said. He added that he was merely stating facts and was not ruling out any possibilities.
Security audit
Mr. Singh said Sri Sri Ravishankar has Y category security. "We will be conducting a security audit and will take measures to beef up the security, including the installation of electronic surveillance gadgets, in consultation with the AoL authorities," he said.
