HAVERI: After absconding for 30 days, the accused of the Shiggaon theatre firing incident was nabbed by the Haveri police on Thursday morning. The accused Manjunath alias Mallik Patil was absconding since the day of the incident on April 19 and was arrested at Mundgodod Uttara Kannada district.
On the day of the incident, Patil had fired on a fellow moviegoer Vasantakumar Mugali at Rajashri theatre, where KGF 2 movie was being screened. The injured is still under treatment in KIMS hospital, Hubballi. Soon after the shooting, the victim was shifted to a local hospital where he was given first aid and then was shifted to KIMS for further treatment. The accused fired three rounds of which two hit the victim. The very next day the police identified the victim and began a search operation. As he was absconding, they formed three teams to search for him. The teams went to Goa, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and Maharashtra in search of Patil.
Haveri Superintendent of Police Hanumantharaya said, “With the help of another person Ismail of Bankapur town, Patil got some amount and he kept changing his location frequently and he travelled to Goa, Maharashtra, Bengaluru and Madhya Pradesh. Finally on Thursday morning, when he was in Mundagod bus station, we nabbed him. We also arrested Ismail for helping him.”
He added, “We have recovered a pistol, 15 bullets, two empty cokas, a scooter and a mobile from the accused. Though he is not a habitual offender, we will ask the court to remand him into the police custody to investigate where he purchased the illegal weapon from.”
Another official said, “The accused had not used his mobile phone and had not contacted any of his family members too. That led to the delay in nabbing him. Apart from the three teams, other teams were also tracking his details.”