For most wards of National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), the chaos of Sunday evening seems like a distant memory.
However, in the now-sealed off criminal ward in Pavilion 1, innumerable bullet holes, blood stains, fallen furniture and hordes of policemen scouring the rooms narrate the drama of a lone gunman going amok.
Late on Sunday afternoon, prisoner Vishwanath (22), who was brought to the institute for treatment, snatched a gun from a City Armed Reserve (CAR) guard. He desisted attempts by the guard to pin him down, and eventually was locked in the criminal ward – where he shot 23 rounds from five rifles kept in the guard room of the ward. Eventually, after negotiations failed, he was shot dead by the elite Garuda force.
With the death being considered custodial (that is, by the police), a statement of the family can only be recorded by a judicial magistrate. Vishwanath’s mother and uncle arrived at the Siddapura Police station at 8 a.m., and continue to wait for a magistrate. Vishwanath’s body remains in NIMHANS and can be shifted to port-mortem table of Victoria Hospital only after the recording of the statement.
Meanwhile, within criminal wards, the police conducted a mahazar (inspection note of the crime scene). The Hindu accessed the room, which is in the second in a line of four rooms in the ward. The walls, floor and ceiling are peppered with bullets – both shot by Vishwanath and the Garuda forces during their brief operation. A steel wardrobe in the room bears numerous bullet holes, while some of the bullets seem to have pierced the wall and landed in the adjacent wards. A trail of blood – perhaps, when a critically injured Vishwanath was taken out of the room – follows along the corridor.
