Indian Museum Firing: Injured CISF Officer Discharged From Hospital

A day after the fratricidal incident, there was no discernible decline in the number of visitors to the country’s oldest and largest museum, the authorities claimed.

An Assistant Commandant rank officer of the force, Suvir Ghosh, suffered minor bullet injuries in the firing on Saturday evening while assistant sub-inspector Ranjit Sarangi was killed.

Ghosh was released from the state-run SSKM Hospital here during the day, an official said.

CISF Head constable A K Mishra was accused of firing from an AK 47 rifle inside the barrack attached to the over 200-year-old museum located in Park Street area in heart of the city.

Mishra has alleged that he was subjected to "harassment" by a superior officer for over two months leading to the incident.

Security was tightened in the Indian Museum a day after the firing.

A senior museum official said that the CISF is mainly entrusted with the task of guarding the entry and exit gates and monitoring the compound through CCTV cameras and patrolling, while the gallery showing exhibits is manned by the staff of the facility.

To a question, the official said decisions about the deployment of armed CISF personnel are not taken by the museum authorities but by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

The CISF has highly competent personnel who take every step in the interest of the visitors as per the directives of the MHA, the official said.

Meanwhile, museum Director A D Choudhury replied in the negative when asked if the visitor count has declined on Sunday in the wake of the previous day's incident.

“The volume of visitors seems to be more or less the same as it was on last Sunday or previous weekends,” he said.

Founded in 1814, Indian Museum is an autonomous organisation under the administrative control of the Union Ministry of Culture.

The CISF has been in charge of security at the museum since December 2019.

(With PTI inputs)