New Delhi: An Army jawan, who had claimed to have been the lone witness in the killing of four soldiers at the Bathinda Military Station earlier this month, was arrested by Punjab Police Sunday. It is learnt that the jawan has confessed to killing the four soldiers and accused them of “physically abusing” him for some time.
“Gunner Desai Mohan, the lone witness who claimed to have seen the two suspects in kurta-pyjama, was arrested Sunday night. He will be produced in the court today [Monday],” Bhatinda senior superintendent of police (SSP) Gulneet Singh Khurana told ThePrint.
Asked about the reasons why Mohan had allegedly killed the four, Khurana said the jawan claimed that he was being “physically abused” by the four for some time. He said that the Army was doing its own Court of Inquiry while the police was doing its parallel investigation.
SSP Khurana added that the suicide by another jawan on the same day of the incident was not linked to the alleged killings and only Mohan was involved in it.
The incident took place on 12 April, when four soldiers were shot dead in a firing incident at the Bathinda Military Station in Punjab, in what was suspected to be a case of fratricide.
Though the Army had officially claimed that the incident involved two unidentified suspects in kurta-pyjama, which was based on the statement by the witness, ThePrint had reported even then that this was a case of suspected fratricide.
As reported, the police did not believe the witness statement of Mohan because the chain of events was not adding up.
‘Postmortem revealed all four shot dead with INSAS rifle’
According to an FIR, filed by Major Ashutosh Shukla from 80 Medium Regiment, gunner Mohan claimed to have spotted two masked men in kurta-pyjama after the killing. It was Mohan who informed Major Shukla after he heard the gunshots. ThePrint has a copy of the FIR.
Mohan, who was the only eyewitness, told his senior officer that one of the unknown assailants was carrying an INSAS (Indian Small Arms System) rifle, while the other had an axe.
However, the postmortem had revealed that none of the four soldiers killed had any axe injuries and were all shot dead with the INSAS rifle.
Army sources had admitted that the case seems to be one of targeted killings in which the suspect or suspects specifically attacked the four.
(Edited by Richa Mishra)
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