Katihar, Jul 28 (PTI) The two persons killed in Bihar's Katihar district during a protest did not die in police firing, but by bullets shot by an "unidentified" person, officials claimed on Friday.

District Magistrate Ravi Prakash and Superintendent of Police Jitendra Kumar made the claim while sharing with the press a CCTV footage of the incident that took place on Wednesday.

Also Read | Air India Flight for Paris Returns to Delhi Airport Shortly After Take-Off Amidst Tyre Debris Scare.

"It is a planned conspiracy. We had been smelling a rat since the police had fired its shots from a place too far to have hit any of the protesters," claimed the SP.

Two persons had died while several others, including many police personnel and power department officials, were injured in the district's Barsoi area where a demonstration demanding better electricity supply turned violent.

Also Read | Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2023 Opinion Poll Results: 40% People Prefer Ashok Gehlot Over Sachin Pilot to Be Congress’ CM Face, Finds ABP-CVoter Survey.

The officials claimed that the CCTV footage showed a gun-toting man "coming from the direction where the first death took place. He can be then seen shooting at and injuring two other bystanders, one of whom died later".

Notably, while Khurshid Alam had died on the spot, Sonu Kumar Sahu succumbed to injuries at a hospital a few hours later. Another person, Neyaz Alam, is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Siliguri in West Bengal for his bullet injury.

The officials said an FIR has been lodged, both against named and unidentified persons, though they did not disclose the identities of the accused.

They, however, asserted that all the accused will be brought to book soon.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)