Karnataka policeman succumbs to don's bullets

A police sub-inspector, shot by an alleged underworld don last week, died Wednesday at a private hospital in Hyderabad.

"Mallikarjun Bande, 40, died at 12.40 a.m. of bullet wounds he suffered in the gun-battle Jan 8 in which don Munna Darbar was shot dead," state Home Minister K.J. George told reporters in Bangalore, about 600 km from here.

Though the inspector was rushed to Hyderabad for emergency treatment, he could not recover from the injuries he suffered even after the two bullets were removed from his head.

"Bande was first operated immediately at a local hospital here (Gulbarga) to remove the bullets in his head and was rushed to Hyderabad for further treatment as he developed some complications," George recalled after his Jan 10 visit to the Hyderbad hospital.

Another constable, who was injured in the incident, is recovering at the hospital in Hyderabad.

The state government has announced Rs.15 lakh ex-gratia to Bande's family and has arranged to give him a state funeral Thursday at his native village Khajuri near Aland in this northern district.

"The government will also bear the expenditures of his two children till college education," George said.

In a related development, police stepped up security and deployed additional forces in the city and Bande's village in view of protests that the wounded inspector was not given best treatment.

Bande's widow Mallamma had urged the government to airlift her husband to a London hospital where Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, who suffered a similar injury when shot at by a Taliban man in October 2012, was treated.

"We could not shift Bande to London for better treatment as doctors said it was not advisable as he was in a coma," Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told reporters at Mysore, about 150 km from Bangalore.