Cop vigil on JPS sports event

Jamshedpur, Nov. 8: Security in and around the JRD Tata Sports Complex was tightened today, a day after Friday’s firing at the complex.

A large number of police constables could be spotted in the area, while patrolling was intensified so that the annual sports day of Jamshedpur Public School (JPS) could go on in a peaceful manner.

Security guards of the JPS were requisitioned to assist the police, along with private security guards of the JRD Tata Sports Complex. The guards were mainly identifying students and parents coming in to participate or watch the sports event.

However, the vigilance was so strict at the complex gate, that students, both from the host school and from others, who showed up without their identification cards were barred from entering the premises.

Some unfamiliar faces, too, were prevented from entering. However, those students accompanied by their parents were let in easily.

“The students, no matter if they were from the JPS or from other participating school, were asked to show their identity cards. If they did not carry the cards and were from the host school then we asked the school security guards to identify them. If they, too, did not recognise them then they were not allowed in,” said an official.

The heightened security and the paranoia around the school event stems from yesterday’s incident where a former JPS student fired from his pistol after he was not allowed to enter the sports complex in the morning.

The youth, a resident of Baridih, had been rusticated from the school a few years ago. Reportedly, the boy had travelled to the sports ground to meet the school principal Lalita Sarin.

The shooting occurred while the final rehearsals for the sports day was underway.

For now, a private security guard, R.K. Thakur, has lodged an FIR against the youth and his accomplice at the Bistupur police station.

Sources who recognised the young man believe that he was an active member in a gang run by gangster Akhilesh Singh.

It is suspected that the young man had a criminal background and was involved in a shootout that took place in front of a jewellery shop in Bistupur, some years ago. An officer at the Bistupur police station said no arrests have been made in connection with the Friday’s firing, as yet.
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