Since last night, many more Indian news outlets have picked up the story of The Great Khali's (possibly intoxicated) bodyguard firing at a crowd in India when they mobbed Khali for autographs outside the home of a politican he was visiting. As we noted last night, it looked like the local police were attempting to manipulate the story. The first version, reported by 24 hour news network Aaj Tak, said that the bodyguard became violent towards young fans and opened fire when adults tried to rescue them. Police Inspector Surinder Mohan then made a suspicious statement that the shooter had not been identified and that he shot into the air with only "splinters" of the bullet hitting a few people in the crowd. Zee News added that the police were threatening to take action against those in the crowd who were "protesting the firing" instead of Khali's bodyguard. That's where we stopped last night.
Today we pick up with a more detailed account, including more on the number of bodyguards, one of the victims claiming that he's been threatened for trying to file a report against the bodyguards, and Sat Pal Gosain (the politician who Khali was the guest of) attempting to manipulate the media coverage. From The Times of India:
Gosain said the crowd of fans went berserk when the wrestler was about to leave as they had been waiting their turn to get pictures clicked with him. ''Some distance away from our house his vehicle was stopped by some miscreants and one of them tried to snatch the weapon of one of the wrestler's guards, forcing the others to open fire to control the situation. One of the miscreants was injured.''
The bullet hit the injured, identified as gurpreet singh alias shanty of mohar singh nagar, in his shoulder.
A case under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 34 (common intention) IPC and Arms Act has been registered at division No 2 police station.
''We have registered the case on the complaint of Gauravjeet Singh alias Gora against the unidentified gunmen,'' said Surinder Mohan, station house officer division number 2, police station.
However, the complainant said, ''I am being threatened ever since I filed the complaint and am being pressurized to go in for a compromise.''Sources said The Khali was accompanied by 15 security guards, who fired 40 bullets to scare away the crowd.
The PTI News Agency (via DNA India) is reporting the more questionable version of the story. United News of India (via Net Indian) is more vague but leaning towards the police/Gosain/Khali side. Aaj Ki Khabar is going so far as to claim that the fans tried to kidnap Khali and that some forced their way into Gosain's house. Samay Live is reporting that one of Khali's fans fired a gun into the air. I guess this says a lot about most of the English language Indian news media. Among them, only Zee News and The Times of India have reported what appears to be the truth, with the Times also making sure to contrast it with the more suspicious "official" claims. I have no idea how the Indian media as a whole is treating the story, but it appears that Aaj Tak broke the story and did a good job in seeking the truth. Hopefully the reliable outlets will stay on top of things. The others, with the conflicting and outlandish stories, are kind of pathetic and depressing, but may end up being a fine source for unintentional comedy.