Jamia shooting: Gunman sent to 14 days protective custody by Delhi court

After the arrest of a 17-year old minor shooter by the Delhi police for firing at anti-Citizenship Amendment act protestors at  Delhi's Jamia area on Thursday, a Delhi court on Friday sent the accused to 14 days protective custody.

Students of Jamia were taking out a march from the university to Mahatma Gandhi's memorial at Raj Ghat on the occasion of Martyrs Day on Thursday when an armed gunman by the name of Ram Bhagat Gopal Sharma open fired on the protestors resulting in the injury of one person.

The student who got injured from the resultant bullet wound has been identified as 25-year-old Shadaab Farukh. After being shot in the hand, Farukh was taken to the Trauma Centre at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Jamia students have been protesting since December 15 last year after police stormed the campus and vandalised library, beat up students. 

According to eyewitnesses, the gunman yelled "Aao tumhein deta hun aazadi (Come, I'll give you freedom)."Before opening fire, he shouted, "I am a Lord Ram devotee." 

However, the person who fired the gun has been identified as a 17-year-old resident of Jewar in Greater Noida. Although the law of the land prevents the individual from being named, it can be said that the man went by the moniker 'Rambhakt Gopal' on Facebook. Now, even though the profile has been deactivated, what remains especially remarkable is that moments before the juvenile pulled the trigger of his pistol in Jamia, reports indicate that he had gone live on Facebook.

This comes a few days after Union minister Anurag Thakur had led slogans of 'goli maaro s**** ko' at a Delhi rally. BJP leaders have criticised the ongoing protests at Shaheen Bagh and Jamia Millia against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC). 

Following the incident, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that the central government will not tolerate such incidents and said that the culprit behind the firing will not be spared at any cost.

The Home Minister also added that he has spoken to the Commissioner of Delhi Police regarding the incident and instructed the cops to take 'drastic action'.

"Today I have spoken to the Delhi Police Commissioner over the firing incident that has taken place in Delhi and instructed the police to take drastic action. The central government will not tolerate any such incident, it will be taken seriously and the culprit will not be spared," Amit Shah tweeted in Hindi from his official Twitter handle.