Mystery over firing at Sri Ravishankar’s convoy solved: Police

M.today

Bangalore, June 5: Police claimed to have cracked the mystery surrounding the firing incident at Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravishankar’s ashram, saying it was a bullet fired by a nearby farm house owner to scare away stray dogs.

 

The owner had fired from his licenced .32 mm revolver and one of the bullets lost velocity and landed in the ashram premises, DGP Ajai Kumar Singh told reporters.
"It is conclusively proved that the bullet was from his revolver", Singh said, adding, the farm owner did not have any intention to murder anyone. The ashram was not visible from the farm house though it was located nearby across the road.

He said the farm house owner Dr Mahadev Prasad had a licence for his weapon. Stray dogs had attacked his sheep recently.

Singh said Prasad has not been arrested as no offence been made against him.
Conflicting versions had emerged about Sunday’s firing, which police had described as an ’incident’ and suspected that it stemmed out of an internal rivalry in the ashram. The Foundation had taken strong exception to the police version claiming the bullet was fired in the direction of Ravi Shankar’s car.

It had also taken umbrage at Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s statement that the spiritual leader ’may not’ have been the target and the incident could be the result of a dispute between two of his disciples.
The AOL had called the statement ’hasty and damaging’, saying it had hurt the sentiments of millions of Ravi Shankar’s followers.

The ashram had also said that Ravi Shankar was present on the spot near the ’satsang’ venue when the bullet was fired at his car, injuring a youth.
AOL said they were satisfied with the probe outcome."I appreciate the quick action of the police...Now things are clear," Narendra Lamba, hermitage administrator at AOL, said.

Ravi Shankar’s Personal Secretary Giri Govind said, "We are satisfied with the probe. We have got a verbal communication. We are waiting for the official report."

Asked about the ashram’s protestations about the earlier police stand, he said, "We reacted about the hurry in reaching conclusions without concluding investigation, not with the way the enquiry was proceeding."

"The probe has also proved that the Union Home Minister’s statement about a brawl between devotees was incorrect", he said.