KOZHIKODE: The Karipur airport, which witnessed bloody clashes between the CISF and fire service personnel resulting in the death of a CISF jawan on Wednesday night, started limping back to normal on Thursday.
Airport operations were resumed after almost 10 hours of shutdown as ADGP North, Shanker Reddy, held discussions with the airport authorities and the Central Industrial Security Force at the airport early on Thursday. However, several flights had to be rescheduled due to the delay.
Both the state police and the CISF launched separate investigations into the incident and the police took 15 fire service personnel into custody for questioning. The Union Home Ministry has sought a detailed report from the Airport Authority of India.
The police team led by Kondotty Circle Inspector questioned the injured fire service officials at the hospital.
Fire service senior superintendent Sunny Thomas and supervisor Ajith Kumar, who were admitted to a private hospital with serious injuries, reportedly denied snatching the gun from CISF inspector Seetharam Choudhari.
The CISF personnel took the body of the deceased S.S. Yadav to Kochi after post-mortem at the Kozhikode Medical College.
The body would be flown to Delhi and then taken to his native village in UP by road, CISF sources here said. Surgeons recovered the bullet lodged in his brain and said it had pierced his lower jaw before hitting the roof of the head.
The Airport Authority of India member (operations) and regional executive director visited the airport and held discussions with the airport staff. Senior CISF and home department officials also visited Karipur and assessed the situation.
Civil Aviation joint secretary Ashok Kumar clarified that the firing was not intentional and that Yadav got killed in accidental firing. Home Ministry officials said action against the guilty would be taken after getting a detailed report.
The police are relying on the CCTV visuals to decipher the sequence of events and how Yadav was shot. There is a CCTV camera right at the spot.
However, airport sources told DC that from the visuals recorded, it could not be understood what really happened because of the melee before the gun fire.
