Man shot inside bank by security guard for not wearing face mask in UP's Bareilly

Visuals of the horrific incident, which took place inside a branch of Bank of Baroda, showed Rajesh Kumar, a Railways employee, lying in a pool of blood around his thighs.

His distraught wife can be seen shouting at the security guard: "Why did you shoot him?"

Another man in the scene, probably the one who recorded the incident on his phone, said : "How can you just shoot him? You will go to jail, you realise? "

In reply, the guard said, "He will go to jail too."

The man who was shot is in hospital and out of danger, an NDTV report said.

The guard was handed over to police, it informed.

The guard said he had been injured in the altercation, too, and the bullet was shot from the fully-loaded rifle accidentally in the midst of the scuffle.

"Even I am injured, you can see my buttons have come off. My rifle was loaded, the trigger got pressed inadvertently," the guard said before being taken away by the police, reported NDTV.

"He did not have a mask. I pointed that out, so he got a mask... but then he started abusing me. We had an argument... there was pushing and shoving, and the firing happened accidentally," the guard said, when asked about the reason for the argument, the report added.

The report said citing a relative of Kumar that an argument started over not wearing a mask, but claimed that the shooting wasn't unintentional.

"When he tried to enter the bank the guard asked him to wear a mask. He went back and wore a mask, but the guard was not letting him enter saying, 'It is lunchtime... come later'. There was an argument and the guard pushed and shot him," the relative said.

Bareilly Police Chief said investigations are going on to ascertain what prompted the guard to pull the trigger, whether it was intentional and if the argument was initially over not wearing a mask.

"The bank employees told us the argument happened over some reason after the person entered the bank. We are questioning the guard and are trying to find out the reason," Sajwan said, quoted NDTV.

Meanwhile, Bank of Baroda responding to Indiablooms over the incident said in a series of tweets :

"We deeply regret the unfortunate firing incident that took place at Station Road Branch, Bareilly today as a result of a reported altercation between the guard and the victim. 

"The injured has been immediately admitted in the district hospital and is reportedly out of danger.  The bank has extended every support (financial and otherwise) to the aggrieved family."