FUKUOKA -- A former police inspector who was seriously injured in a shooting incident linked to the Kudo-kai gang has filed a suit against the leader and five other members of the Kitakyushu-based crime syndicate, demanding nearly 30 million yen in compensation, it has been learned.

The plaintiff, who formerly served as a Fukuoka Prefectural Police inspector, filed the damages suit with the Fukuoka District Court on Aug. 25. A growing number of civil suits nationwide are demanding that top gang members be held responsible for employer's liability over gang-related incidents involving their underlings, but this is the first lawsuit filed against the head of the Kudo-kai.

The former inspector is demanding Kudo-kai head Satoru Nomura, 70, and five other members pay a total of 29.68 million yen in compensation based on employer's liability and the Civil Code's joint tortfeasors liability over the actions of a gang member who committed the crime.

The former officer, now in his 60s, was shot on a street in Kokuraminami Ward, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, on his way to work in April 2012, sustaining serious injuries to his back and left thigh. In July 2015, Nomura and Fumio Tanoue, 61, the No. 2 in the gang, as well as nine others were indicted for violating the Act on Punishment of Organized Crimes and Control of Crime Proceeds in connection with the case. The Fukuoka District Court in March this year sentenced Kazuhito Wada, 38, a member of a Kudo-kai-affiliated gang, to 18 years and eight months in prison.

The plaintiff's lawyers say that the aims of the shooting were to retaliate against police for their investigation into the Kudo-kai, and to keep law enforcers in check, as the former inspector headed a special probe unit at the prefectural police's Kitakyushu district organized crime investigation department that was in charge of Kudo-kai investigations. The lawyers also insisted that Nomura and Tanoue face joint tortfeasors liability for ordering the shooting, as well as of employer's liability under the Act on Prevention of Unjust Acts by Organized Crime Group Members, as they were in a position to represent the gang.