Ruling out an exchange of fire at the ISRO facility in the city outskirts on Tuesday, the Karnataka government rejected the CISF guard’s claim that two unidentified men shot at the centre.
Making a statement in the legislative council, Home Minister V.S. Acharya said “There are no traces of gun shots outside the building (ISRO’s Indian Deep Space Network centre). Preliminary investigation suggested that there were no traces of gun shots from any intruder.”
He said CISF personnel Jadhav, who was on duty, claimed he noticed movement of two persons at about 3.30 am on Tuesday, and he fired eight bullets to retaliate firing by intruders.
“While six empty cartridges out of the eight rounds fired have been recovered from the spot, no trace of gunfire outside the ISDN complex was found. This is what the situation is,” Mr. Acharya said, responding to the issue raised by Leader of Opposition Motamma (Congress) during zero hour.
The police and CISF have launched a joint probe into the issue and the government would initiate action on receipt of an inquiry report, he said, adding there was no need to panic and that all precautionary measures were taken.
M.C. Nanaiah of JDS pointed to the contradictory statements that have surfaced over the incident involving the ISRO facility at Byalalu. Mr. Nanaiah wanted to know whether the state had sent a report to the Centre, to which Mr. Acharya responded in the positive.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Karnataka Police had on Tuesday ruled out any terror angle to the incident that initially raised security fears in the city.
“There are no signs of any firing from outside, certainly there was no evidence of firing on the outside walls of the ISRO facility. On the face of it, it does not appear to be a terror attack,” ADGP (Law and Order) A.R. Infant had said.
