Russian roulette goes wrong, Gwalior girl shoots herself with dad’s revolver on video chat with friend

The girl’s friend thought she was joking, and warned her not to play with dangerous weapons.

A 21-year-old girl, who was pretending to play Russian roulette with her father’s revolver, died after she pulled the trigger on herself at her home in Gwalior.

Police said the incident took place when the girl was alone in the house on September 7.(HT File Photo/Representative image)

According to investigating officer, Sudesh Tiwari, the victim Karishma Yadav was on video chat with her friend Nazma, who was travelling in a Metro train in Delhi last Friday when the incident took place.

Russian roulette is a lethal game of chance in which a player places a single round in a revolver, spins the cylinder, places the muzzle against his or her head, and pulls the trigger.

Karishma showed her father’s revolver to Nazma and said, “There is only one bullet in the chamber, and I don’t know where.”

Then she put the revolver above her ear. Her friend Nazma thought she was joking, but warned her not to play with such dangerous weapons.

Karishma then put the revolver down, but picked it up again after a few seconds and said, “Let’s see if fate has destined death for me.”

As Nazma was travelling in the Metro in Delhi, the call got disconnected. It is probably at this time that Karishma pulled the trigger and the bullet struck her head, police said.

Nazma tried to call again but there was no answer. It connected once, and Karishma told her, “Goli lag gayi (I have been shot)”, and then the line went dead.

Karishma’s elder brother Shivam, who had recently joined the Army, had come to Gwalior that day and found the door locked, and when he broke it open, he saw Karishma lying in a pool of blood.

She was taken to a private hospital and was declared dead on Monday morning.

Police said when they started investigating the case, they found that the last call had been made to Nazma.

“We talked to her in detail and she told us how Karishma was playing with the gun and the conversation she had with Karishma,” said officer Tiwari.

Karishma is the daughter of former subedar Arvind Singh Yadav, who retired four months ago and lives at Narayan Vihar Colony in Gwalior. Singh’s eldest son Shivam had recently joined the Army and is posted in Patiala, while younger son Dev is a student of Class 6. Karishma had done her BCom from a college in Delhi.

Police said the incident took place at their house around 12.30 pm on September 7. Karishma was alone in the house as Dev had gone to school and her parents had gone on a pilgrimage to Chitrakoot a day before.

Karishma’s father Arvind Yadav told police that Karishma was an NCC topper and had learnt to use firearms during her NCC days. She had also been selected to SSC.