Nine members of the Rescue and Fire Fighting section of the Kozhikode international airport were on Friday arrested in connection with the death of CISF personnel S S Yadav during a scuffle on Wednesday night. They were charged with culpable homicide, rioting and disrupting official duties under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. On Wednesday, the airport had been temporarily shut down after a violent clash between CISF men and officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), following an argument over frisking of some personnel at approximately 9.40 pm that day. “In the ensuing scuffle, a firearm belonging to a CISF personnel went off, killing a head constable while the official who was holding the firearm sustained burn injuries on his hand. He has been hospitalised. The scuffle continued for some time,” stated an official release. More persons, including those from the CISF, would be arrested soon, said the police. [related-post] Senior supervisors Aji Kumar and Sunny Thomas, who had allegedly picked a fight with CISF inspector Seetharam Chaudhiri, which later escalated into the violent scuffle, were not among those arrested today. A group of AAI staff had allegedly physically assaulted Chaudhiri over an argument he had with an official of the fire fighting wing over mandatory. security examination at the airport. Yadav, who had reportedly intervened to broker peace, was accidentally hit by the bullet from the pistol of Chaudhiri, who was also injured in the firing. “A preliminary report on what exactly happened was furnished to the DGP,” said ADGP (North Zone) N Shankar Reddy. “The incident involved two central government organisations. We will go by the evidence and follow up with legal procedures,” he added. (With inputs from PTI)
