New Delhi: The teenage shooter who fired Thursday at protesters near Jamia Millia Islamia University here has been charged with attempted murder, police said Friday. The 17-year-old, a class 11 student from Uttar Pradesh, has also been charged under the Arms Act.
Since his arrest Thursday, the police have interrogated the student. They said that the student had informed them that he bought a crude pistol a few days back and had been planning to attack the protesters against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The teenager, according to the police reportedly left his house in Jewar, which is approximately 70km away from the national capital, and took a bus to the protest site. His family members did not know he had bunked school and were unaware of his intentions.
The boy joined at the students’ protest at Jamia University against the CAA and blended in the crowd initially..
Around 1.40pm, he emerged from the crowd and pulled out a gun, shouting “Yeh lo Azaadi (here’s your freedom)”. Dozens of policemen in riot gear watched as he kept waving his gun at unarmed protesters and shouting threats.
When he fired a shot, metres away from the policemen, it hit a student who was apparently trying to calm him down – Shadam Farooq, a first year mass communication student. Before his act, the teen shooter had been on ‘Facebook’ livestreaming.
A policeman eventually approached him and overpowered him. On the slow response of the police, an officer said the boy was about 30 metres away with his back to them, so the weapon was ‘not visible’.
Videos on the teen’s Facebook timeline showed him walking around in the crowded road – the venue of the protest – with a red backpack on. His posts seemed to indicate that he had come prepared for the consequences of his action. “On my last journey, take me draped in saffron and shout slogans of Jai Shri Ram,” was one of the Hindi captions he wrote.
Home Minister Amit Shah has ordered stringent action in the shooting incident and said ‘the culprit will not be spared’.
Agencies