Bhubaneswar girl suffers bullet injury while toying with 'goon' friend's pistol

BHUBANESWAR: A 20-year-old student of fashion technology here was hospitalized with a bullet injury on Monday after a pistol she was allegedly casually handling went off.
The incident, which occurred in the woman’s rented house in Sishu Vihar here, prompted police to arrest her friend and the pistol’s owner, Asish Kumar Nayak (27), who initially tried to mislead the cops by saying two unidentified persons attacked her.
Police said Nayak was a known criminal and the firearm was unlicenced. He was present in the woman’s room when the gun went off, they added. “We arrested Nayak for illegal possession of a firearm. He will also be booked for attempt to murder (Section 307 of the IPC) although the woman was injured because of accidental firing,” DCP Anup Kumar Sahoo told TOI.
Police said the woman, who was hit on the thigh, is out of danger. Commissionerate police has sanctioned Rs 25,000 for her treatment.
Police sources said Nayak (27) had been involved in a series of cases, mostly property-related offences, in different districts. He had been arrested in a bomb explosion case in Nayapalli area here and was out on bail.
Nayak initially claimed that two bike-borne goons had opened fire on the woman when the two of them were chatting on a street in Sishu Vihar in the afternoon. Police first suspected that Nayak was the target of the attackers, but realised that he was lying as his claim could not be corroborated by anyone in the busy neighbourhood. “When we questioned the woman in hospital, she admitted that the gun had gone off accidentally,” police said.