In a bizzare incident that occured in the District Court in Pratapgarh on 18 December, a person, accused of firing in the air during an incident in town, surrendered himself in the District Court, in front of the Judge when Court proceedings were going on. Everyone in Court was stunned when the man entered the Court room and placed a pistol on the Judges table.

The video of the incident is going viral on the social media, however, we have abstained from showing it here, since it has been captured within the Courtroom.

The Judge in the Courtroom at 1pm when the incident occured, was Judge Yogesh Yadav, who was busy hearing another case proceedings. On being asked why he bought the Pistol to Court and was surrendering, the accused said that he was afraid that the police would kill him in an encounter.

The accused, identified as Salman, is a Fish vendor at Pratapgarh and has since been detained by the Police.

SP Pratapgarh, Amit Kumar said "The 28 year old accused Salman is a resident of Malwa Colony and runs a butcher shop. It was on the morning of 17 December, when he had an argument with another butcher in the area, Akeel Mohammed Qureshi following a customer issue.  In a bid to scare him, he opened fire in the air.  Akeel registered a complaint with the police after the incident and Salman was on run since then".

Adding further, the SP said "We have booked a new case against the accused Salman under Section 3/25, of the Arms Act, along with Section 353 (Assault or Criminal Force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), Sec 336 (Endangering Human Life or the Personal Safety of Others), Sec 186 (Voluntarily Obstructing any Public Servant in the Discharge of his Public Service ) of the Indian Penal Code.  Interestingly, Salman already has 5 Criminal cases registered against him including two cases under the Arms Act. We are now interrogating him further in relation to the incident".

In front of the Media, Salman said that he surrendered as he was afraid that the Police could have shot him dead in an encounter, and thus he entered the Court with his pistol.  He added that he do not have any intention to hurt anyone.

This is an abstract of the conversation that took place between Salman and Judge Yogesh Yadav, as per the viral video of the incident:

Judge: "What was incident?"

Salman: "The matter was related to my business, one of my competitors, Akeel Qureshi threatened me that he would kill me,  if I interfere in his business. I have a fish shop."

Judge: "Why did you enter the court with a pistol?

Salman: "Sir, I came here to surrender as i have done a huge mistake. If I did not surrender, the Police could have killed me".

Judge: "But you have entered in the Court room with a pistol; kept the pistol in front of a Judge.  You could have shot the Judge".

Salman: "Sir I am confessing my mistake; I do not have any intention to cause any harm to anyone".