Indian-origin man denies shooting constable in New Zealand

Wellington, Mar 7 (ANI): An Indian-origin man, Neshanderan Rajgopaul, has denied that he had shot a police officer but refused to name the gunman fearing that his life would be in danger, the High Court in Auckland has heard.

Twenty-nine-year-old Rajgopaul is on trial for attempting to murder Constable Jeremy Snow in Papatoetoe in December 2009, stuff.co.nz reports.

Snow was shot four times when he and his partner had stopped to check a car in a driveway of a house they believed was being broken into. He was rescued by armed police as he came close to dying from blood loss, the report said.

Interacting with Detective Constable Amajeet Kumar, Rajgopaul denied that he had shot Snow.

"I don't want to mention the person's name because of my safety and the safety of my family, because I know what they're capable of," Rajgopaul said.

He admitted being present at the property that night, but said that he panicked and jumped the fence.

"I was freaking out about what to do. I saw the torches and heard someone saying 'come out of there'. That's when things went crazy," Rajgopaul added.

When Kumar told him that Snow had described being shot by an Indian man, Rajgopaul said: "He is highly mistaken. Was there another Indian male at the premises that I don't know about or was he mistaken that that person was Indian?"

Defence counsel Ron Mansfield had earlier told the jury that Rajgopaul was not the shooter, instead it was his friend, Darrin Court, who was also at the property that night.

Rajgopaul had been smoking drugs with Court and their drug associate, Gavin Lomas, before the shooting, the jury was told.

Court, who has already given evidence for the Crown, said Rajgopaul kept several firearms, including pistols, shotguns, rifles and a high-pressure airgun.

Besides the attempted murder charge, Rajgopaul also faces one charge each of threatening to kill, firing a weapon with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and four charges of unlawfully possessing a firearm and one each of possessing a class A drug for supply and receiving stolen property. (ANI)