By IANS,
Bangalore: A day after reports of a shootout at a centre of India’s space agency ISRO near here, Karnataka Home Minister V.S. Acharya Wednesday said there was no evidence of guards being fired at in the sensitive Deep Space Network (DSN) facility.
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) sentry appears to have opened fire apprehending some people were trying to intrude into the facility in the wee hours of Tuesday, Acharya told the state legislative council.
According to the CISF guard, identified only as Jhadhav, he fired eight rounds as one of the two men he saw moving suspiciously near the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) facility at Byalalu, about 40 km from here, opened fire when questioned at around 3.30 a.m. Tuesday.
Acharya told the house that the six empty shells of the bullets fired by the CISF guard were found in the area. But there no evidence of firing from the intruder has been found, the home minister said.
He said senior police officers led by Additional Director General (Law and Order) A.R. Infant, visited the spot and that investigations are on.
Janata Dal-Secular member M.C. Nanaiah said that the home minister’s statement contradicted the version given by ISRO and said the issue should be dealt carefully as it involved the security of A sensitive facility.
Acharya said a report has been sent to the central government stating there was no evidence to prove firing from outsiders.
Earlier in the day, the home minister told reporters that the firing by the CISF guard appeared to be due to a lack of proper understanding of the situation and no importance should be given to the incident.