Home Guard jawan dies of bullet injury at police station

Archit Watts

Tribune News Service

Malout, March 22

A 45-year-old Home Guard jawan, Gurmeet Singh of Bhundar village here, was killed as his service rifle reportedly went off accidently at the Malout (Sadar) police station on Thursday morning.

Sukhdev Singh, Bhundar village’s sarpanch, said, “I got to know about the sudden death of Gurmeet around 6.30 am on Thursday. Two cops had come to my house to inform me. Thereafter, we went to his house and informed the family about the incident. Family members and we went to the spot and found the body lying in a pool of blood at the kitchen in the police station. It appeared to be a case of an accidental fire. It seems that he was cleaning or inspecting the rifle.”

He said Gurmeet were three brothers and two of them had already passed away. “Gurmeet is survived by his mother, wife, three daughters and a son. Their financial condition is week so the state government must provide some aid to the family. He served as a Home Guard jawan for the past 20 years,” said the sarpanch.

Meanwhile, the police said that it was not a case of suicide. Cops said they had started an investigation under Section 174 of the CrPC.

“The Home Guard’s jawan died due to an accidental fire. He was given the rifle to perform an inspection duty at some location in the field,” said Sub-Inspector Bikramjit Singh, SHO, Malout (Sadar) police station. Sources said the Home Guard jawan was deployed at the residence of a local DSP.