The government of Chhattisgarh ordered an inquiry in the indiscriminate firing case which occurred during the wee hours of Monday morning at Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) 50th Battalion camp, situated in Linganpalli village under Maraiguda police station, District Sukma, located around 400 km away from capital Raipur.
As per the information received constable Reetesh Ranjan fired at his colleagues with his service weapon, an AK-47 rifle, leading to the death of four of his colleagues and three suffered bullet injuries, IG Bastar Sundarraj P said.
Out of these three, two jawans having serious bullet wounds were airlifted to Raipur to have better treatment meanwhile one jawan has been provided treatment at Bhadrachalam, Sunil Sharma, SP Sukma said while speaking to media.
We have received the information of the firing incident around 2.30-3.00 am in the night and immediately rushed for rescue. Despite we sped up the rescue works, two of the jawans died on the spot, rest two jawans succumbed to injuries amid the rescue operations, the SP said.
However, after the incident, the jawan Reetesh accused of shooting at the camp was immediately arrested and his interrogation is underway, he said.
Among 4 killed, 3 jawans belong to Bihar
Meanwhile, the Chhattisgarh government released the details of the deceased and injured and said, out of four three of the deceased are from Bihar and one from West Bengal.
Rajmani Kumar Yadav, Dhanji and Dharmendra Kumar are from Bihar and Rajib Mondal resident of West Bengal died in the incident.
IG CRPF, Additional SP Konta has reached the Linganpalli camp. Meanwhile, IG Bastar, Collector Sukma and SP Sukma will be arriving at the spot soon, the government release said.
“The accused jawan Reteesh Ranjan was supposed to do his sentry duty from 0400 hrs onwards. After getting ready for the duty he randomly opened up fire on other jawans sleeping in the barrack. Exact reason yet to be ascertained”, the government statement said.
Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel expressed his grief over the issue paid condolences for the deceased and have instructed for the better treatment of the injured.
"I have already instructed the officers to probe the case and take adequate measures so that such thing would not get repeated in future", CM Baghel said.
Government of mishandling of the case led death of jawans: BJP
Despite, it was known that incident occurred around 2 a.m., no adequate steps were taken to save the lives of jawan, Raipur District President Srichand Sundarani alleged. Common people have no idea where the Home Minister vanished these days, Sundrani said.
Jawan was stressed
The CRPF on Monday said the jawan may have have been suffering from "emotional stress" leading to sudden psychological disbalance.
The accused jawan was transferred to Jammu and Kashmir and his off days were also sanctioned but he was tense. He had a small argument with his collegaues and such an unfortunate incident occurred, the sources informed.
