Farm owner’s stray bullet injured Sri Sri devotee: Police

BANGALORE - A farm owner was detained Saturday after it was found that he had fired two rounds to scare away stray dogs but one of them had strayed into Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s ashram complex and injured a devotee, a top police officer said.

“The farm is adjacent to the ashram. The owner says he fired two rounds from his .32 caliber pistol (on May 30 evening). One of the bullets injured Vinay (a follower of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar),” Karnataka Director General of Police Ajay Kumar Singh told reporters here.

The farm owner, identified as Mahadev Prasad, has been detained for questioning, he said. Prasad owns 10 acres of land.

“He has a licensed pistol. Ballistic experts who examined the bullet found at the ashram and the farm owner’s pistol confirmed that it had been fired from this weapon,” Singh said.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and his devotees had claimed that the spiritual leader was the target.

However, Singh as well as Home Minister P. Chidambaram had disagreed and asserted that Sri Sri, who has millions of followers in India and abroad, was not the target.

Singh had said May 31: “We are treating this as an incident and not an attack on guruji.”

The same day Chidambaram said in New Delhi that it appeared to be the result of a brawl between devotees.

The Art of Living founder had taken strong exception to the state police and the home minister not treating it as an attack on his life.

The Art of Living ashram is on Kanakapura Road, about 25 km from Bangalore city centre.