VELLORE: What started as a minor squabble between a youth and a relative of his lover, led to a shooting incident in which a 29-year-old engineer sustained injury on his leg.
Three persons including a CRPF man were arrested following the incident in Melkattuputhur village in Melapadi on Tuesday night.
The police picked S Vinayagam (25), a CRPF man and a resident of Chittoor in AP, B Dinesh (22) of Paratharami in Vellore and M Suresh (24) of Chittoor from their hideout during the early hours of Wednesday in connection with the incident. A police team is also on the lookout for one more person in the case.
The police also recovered a 7.62 mm automatic pistol and five rounds of live bullets from the trio. “Vinayagam is working in Jharkhand and had come on leave. The seized pistol was purchased in Uttar Pradesh,” said a police source.
Renugopal of Melkattuputhur village sustained bullet injury below his right knee in the incident and was admitted to the Government Vellore Medical College Hospital. Dinesh was staying in his grandparent’s house in Melkattuputhur and attending college in the vicinity.
He fell in love with a schoolgirl in the village. His lover telephoned him from her relative Lakshmipathy’s cell phone when he went to his native place for holidays recently.
Learning about their relationship, Lakshmipathy had warned Dinesh to discontinue his relationship with the girl. Since then, Dinesh harboured enmity with Lakshmipathy. On Tuesday night, Dinesh came to the village along with three of his friends, including Vinayagam and Suresh.
They threatened Lakshmipathy of dire consequence, if he intervened in Dinesh’ affair. On seeing this, Lakshmipathy’s friends and neighbours gathered in large number and questioned the quartet. Taking everyone by surprise, Vinayagam took out the pistol and warned the villagers not to come closer to them.
He opened two rounds of fire to chase the villagers in a bid to escape from them. The villagers took to their heels to escape unhurt.
“The CRPF man first opened fire in the air. The second round, he fired aiming at the ground. Lakshmipathy’s friend Renugopal, who went to rescue his friend, sustained bullet injury on his right leg,” said a villager.
Within a flash, Vinayagam, Dinesh and his friends fled from the spot on their bikes.
SP of Vellore, P Vijayakumar said, they had picked few persons for inquiry. He, however, refused to disclose any information regarding the seizure of the pistol.