Army jawan 'dies by suicide' after 4 shot dead inside Bathinda Military Station

Tribune News Service

Sukhmeet Bhasin/Ajay Banerjee

Bathinda/New Delhi, April 13

An Army jawan reportedly 'died by suicide' inside Bathinda Military station late on Wedensday evening.

The Cantt police station has received a complaint. "There is no connection whatsoever with the incident that took place at 4.30 am at Bathinda Military Station on Wednesday," the Army said. 

The Army on Thursday said the dead soldier was on sentry duty and he apparently committed suicide. The soldier died of a gunshot wound at approximately 4.30 pm on April 12 at Bathinda Military Station.

The soldier was on sentry duty with his service weapon. He has been identified as Laghu Raj Shankar, said Gurdeep Singh, SHO, Bathinda Cantt Police Station.

The weapon and cartridge case from the same weapon was found next to the soldier. The gunshot wound was near the right temporal region. He was immediately evacuated to the Military Hospital, but succumbed to his injuries, a statement said.

The soldier had returned from leave on April 11. "The case purportedly seems to be of attempted suicide," the Army said.

The Army and Punjab police are separately probing the death of four jawans at the Bathinda military station. 

Four Army jawans were killed in a firing inside the same military station on Wednesday.

A hunt was on for two men spotted with their faces covered and armed with a rifle and an axe.

The four personnel, in their mid 20s, were sleeping when the firing took place around 4:30 am in their barracks near the officers' mess in the artillery unit.

According to "the information we have gathered so far, it is clear that it is not a terrorist act," a senior police officer said.

Initially, the police suggested that it was an incident of "fratricide". However, officials later said there was no clarity on the incident yet.

It is learnt that Army Chief Gen Manoj Pande briefed Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on the matter.

Army sources said a court of inquiry (CoI) will investigate the entire incident in addition to the ongoing probe by the state police with support from the force.

It is suspected that an INSAS rifle, which was reported missing along with 28 rounds two days ago, was used in the firing incident. The Army said on Wednesday the INSAS rifle has been found.

A jawan saw two unidentified men in white kurta-pyjama, their faces and heads covered, coming out of the barracks after the firing. One of them was carrying an INSAS rifle and the other an axe, the jawan said, according to the police FIR.

The suspected attackers, who were of medium height, went towards a forested area near the barracks on seeing the jawan, according to the police FIR.

Subsequently, two Army officers went inside the barracks and found Sagar Banne (25) and Yogesh Kumar J (24) in a pool of blood. In another room, the bodies of Santosh M Nagaral (25) and Kamalesh R (24), were found. The bodies bore bullet marks, according to the FIR.

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