NEW DELHI: A day after chaos erupted at Azadpur Metro station, eyewitnesses and CISF personnel on Tuesday said that the riot-like situation ensued after around 30 troublemakers forcefully entered the station premises and threatened the officials on duty.

“We detained six people on Monday evening of which three have been arrested. More arrest are likely soon,” said DCP (Metro) Pankaj Kumar.

The accused, identified as Fullinder (52), Rakesh Singh (42) and a juvenile, are residents of a JJ colony in the area. They have been booked for preventing a public servant from conducting his duty and assaulting a public servant to prevent him from conducting his duty.

A senior CISF and DMRP official said that around 8pm two youths waiting in a queue were seen having a heated argument. When an official tried to intervene, he was pushed away. The duo was taken to the station controller’s room and asked to pay fine as per Metro rules. However, they flatly refused and continued to create a ruckus inside the room.

A few of their friends standing in queue for security check immediately called their relatives and friends from the nearby localities to reach the Metro station. Within 10 minutes, an agitated group of men and women entered the station, some carrying rods.

The security personnel stopped around 25 of them at the checking area to stop the situation from worsening. But some of them jumped over the guide grilles and reached the station controller’s room.

Before anyone could react, the trespassers caught hold of constable Munna Lal, who was taking the duo outside the room. The mob heckled the constable and then assaulted him.

“The CISF duty in-charge Mohammad Umar kept asking the agitated people to back off, but to no avail. He took out his service pistol to warn them, but they didn’t stopped thrashing the constable. Umar was then forced to open fire once in the air,” said a CISF officer.

Hearing the gunshot, the men outside ran away. The ones inside the station were nabbed, police said. “A huge crowd of curious onlookers had gathered outside as they had never heard shots fired inside a Metro station. It took us a while to disperse the crowd and bring the situation under control,” said another CISF official. He added that all this while the Metro continued to ply as normal.

Cops from Kashmere Gate Metro police station are investigating the matter. An inquiry has been initiated against Umar to find out the circumstances under which he opened fire. The bullet did not cause any damage as it hit the ceiling and got deflected to a safe area.



In Video: To control ruckus inside Delhi's Azadpur Metro station, CISF officer fires in air