Army orders inquiry into Bangalore youth death

A full-fledge inquiry to be headed by a colonel has been ordered to conduct into the death of a Bangalore student who was shot dead by Army jawans while trying to intrude into the residence of a Brigadier on very early Sunday.

The Army will inquire into how the breach of security occurred and what were the other guards doing, and whether the sequence of events told by the sentries was factual and accurate.

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A 19-year-old B.Com student of Baldwin’s Methodist College in Bangalore, Mohammad Mukarram Pasha, was shot dead on early Sunday by the sentries after he dodged the police and entered into the residence of a Brigadier.

Mukarram, a bike freaks, used to perform stunts regularly on his bike. Saturday night was just another night while he with his friend Shamsher were racing on their bike. Their stunt ‘wheelie’– bike or car is driven on back wheel with front wheel up in air – grab the attention of traffic police, some time between 1 and 1.15 am, and the duo were asked to stop while trying to zigzag police barricade at the crossing of MG Road and Old Airport Road, but they manage to flee.

Around 1.30 am, when Mukarram and his friend reached ASC Circle, near Trinity Church, Ulsoor traffic police inspector Gopal Rao, after getting prior information, was waiting for them with barricades put up to stop them.

They lost control and fell, but quickly got up and ran. The Bangalore Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari said: “Finding no way out, Mukarram and his friend left the bike and ran in different directions.”

While his friend managed to flee, Mukarram jumped the boundary of an Army compound-ASC Records (South)-and started running on the campus. Later, he climbed the rooftop of Brigadier P S Ravindranath's residence – also known as the Flag Staff House – which is just a barb-wired fence away from the military campus.

After a thorough searching security guards, who were on night duty, realised someone was on the roof of the Flag Staff House. He was repeatedly asked by the sentries to come down. And before the guards could apprehend him he fled towards the compound wall towards the main road. He was eventually fired upon after he did not heed sentries’ repeated warning to surrender.

DCP East BK Singh said that the guards opened six rounds of fire from an INSAS 56 Rifle. Of the six, three are said to have pierced Mukarram’s stomach.

Earlier, while hiding inside the military campus, he called upon his friends and relatives, saying police were after him. After shot him down by the police, he was taken to hospital by his cousin’s car waiting outside the boundary. But he succumbed to injuries even before reaching the hospital.

Brigadier P S Ravindranath while talking to media said that he was sleeping when the incident took place and he called the police control room immediately after the incident.

Mukarram's father Mushtaq Ahmed Khan, alias Babu, is a bus owner.