After a confrontation over leave, a police constable allegedly opened fire on a senior sub-inspector with his service rifle before training the gun on himself inside Ujhani police station nearly 15 kilometres from Budaun town area on Kasganj road on Friday morning, police officials said.
Confirming the incident, deputy inspector general (DIG), Bareilly range, Rajesh Kumar Pandey said senior sub-inspector (SSI) Ram Aautar, in his 50s, suffered bullet injury in his abdomen and his condition was critical due to excessive bleeding. He said police constable Lalit Kumar, 25, however, suffered a wound on his shoulder.
The DIG further said the initial probe revealed that Lalit Kumar, a 2016 batch constable, had been trying to get his leave sanctioned for the past few days. He said the SSI, who was in-charge of the police station as the inspector concerned had tested positive for Covid-19, turned down the constable’s leave application, stating that the leave will be sanctioned only when the inspector joins back.
As per Pandey, the constable appeared before the inspector on Friday when the latter resumed his duty and Kumar’s leave was sanctioned. The DIG said the situation turned ugly when the SSI passed some comments when the constable was coming out of the inspector’s room after getting his leave sanctioned.
“In a fit of rage, the constable opened fire on the SSI with his Insas rifle, injuring him critically, and later tried to harm himself,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}“In a fit of rage, the constable opened fire on the SSI with his Insas rifle, injuring him critically, and later tried to harm himself,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}The DIG said the initial investigation suggested that the SSI and the constable had confrontation over the same issue multiple times in the past few days.
He said the inspector was asked to register an FIR against the constable and conduct a thorough probe into the incident. Pandey said the constable will be taken into custody as soon as he is discharged from the district hospital.