Bengaluru: A 22-year-old mentally unstable undertrial prisoner was shot dead by commandos of the elite Garuda Force at the premier mental health institute, Nimhans, after he snatched a rifle from a constable and started firing indiscriminately in an attempt to escape on Sunday evening.
Tension gripped the tranquil Nimhans premises for more than three hours as the undertrial, who was locked up in a room by the policemen, kept the entire force on tenterhooks. In the end, the commandos stormed into the room and critically wounded Vishwanath, a resident of Kaval Byrasandra near D.J. Halli. Involved in two arson cases, he was in judicial custody for the last three years. He was lodged at the jail ward in Pavilion One of Nimhans about 20 days ago.
Around 3 pm, Vishwanath told a CAR constable guarding the ward that he wanted to attend nature’s call. As the constable opened his hand cuffs, Vishwanath took the long iron chain used to tie him to the hospital cot and started swinging it at the three policemen deputed and also four to five other prisoners admitted there. The cops, who were in shock, could not overpower him initially. Later, the other prisoners in the ward and hospital staff came to the help of the constables and chased Vishwanath down to the guardroom, the entry point of the jail ward. In the melee, he managed to snatch the rifle held by one of the cops, even as the policemen managed to lock the guardroom from out. Only then did the policemen realise that Vishwanath had access to five .303 rifles and over 100 rounds of ammunition, stashed in an almirah of the guardroom.
As the cops alerted the nearest Siddapura police, Vishwanath loaded rounds to the rifle and started firing at the ceiling and the ground inside the guardroom. He also shot through the two windows in the guardroom targeting the nurses’ bay. As a precautionary measure, the cops shifted the inmates in the other rooms to an adjacent building before additional forces arrived. An alert was sounded and all the top police officers in the city descended at the spot.
City Police Commissioner N.S. Megharikh and other senior officials brainstormed and concluded that the situation would go out of hand if Vishwanath managed to come out of the room and started aiming the rifle at the public, patients, policemen and the hospital staff. The top officers cops decided to call in the Garuda Force, the state’s elite terror combat force, trained in handling emergencies.
Around 5.30 pm, a team of 30 commandos landed at Nimhans, assessed the situation and cordoned off the building where Vishwanath was holed in. During the entire process, Vishwanath kept firing from the gun every 5-10 minutes. The police also made several attempts to convince him to surrender, but he did not relent. A Head Constable, through a public address system, told Vishwanath that his mother, Bhagyamma, wanted to speak to him. The constable offered to pass on a mobile phone to Vishwanath, but the reply was a resounding gun shot.
Bhagyamma too spoke to him through the PAS, but Vishwanath did not reply. Around 6.30 pm, the commandos decided to put an end to the three-hour-long hostile situation.
Four commandos, who were ordered to enter the guardroom, got the key from the police. As one of them opened the lock, the three others took position. As one opened the iron door, the three others barged inside and shot Vishwanath, who was reportedly loading a bullet into the rifle. Around 10 bullets were shot from the sophisticated weapons of the commandos and the bullets were pumped into Vishwanth’s chest and head. He was rushed to the emergency ward next door under critical condition. The doctors performed a surgery, but declared him dead around 11 pm.
