CRPF personnel shoots self; 3rd incident of jawan suicide in Chhattisgarh in May

Police said constable Divakara Rao (37) who was with CRPF’s 150th battalion shot himself with his service rifle at the paramilitary force’s camp at Penta village.

In a third such incident in Chhattisgarh this month, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan allegedly shot himself dead on Monday in the insurgency-hit Sukma district, police said.

CRPF personnel around an ambulance at an encounter site in Jamshedpur. (PTI File Photo/ Representative image)

Constable Divakara Rao (37) who was with CRPF’s 150th battalion shot himself with his service rifle at the paramilitary force’s camp at Penta village at around 4 pm, police told PTI.

Rao’s colleagues immediately took him to a hospital at CRPF camp in Dornapal where he died during treatment.

He hailed from Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh.

What prompted him to take the extreme step was yet to be ascertained.

Two incidents of a CRPF jawan committing suicide had been reported in Chhattisgarh -- where the force has been deployed for the last several years to fight the Maoists -- earlier this month.