Lucknow: A 25-year-old constable posted in Ayodhya’s Ram Temple died Wednesday morning from a bullet fired from his INSAS rifle.
The initial probe into the matter, according to the Ayodhya police, pointed to death by suicide though they were not ruling out accidental firing or other possibilities.
Sources in the police said constable Shatrughna Vishwakarma’s colleagues heard a gun shot around 5.25 am near an under-construction VIP entrance in the Ram Temple premises. They found him lying in a pool of blood.
The police were informed by fellow security men that the constable had shot himself, said Ayodhya’s Senior Superintendent of Police Rajkumar Nayyar. “He was immediately taken to the Darshan Nagar Medical college where he was declared dead. The probe is on. More information will be shared later,” Nayyar said.
An Ayodhya officer said Vishwakarma was apparently staring at his mobile phone moments before the incident. A 2019 recruit, Vishwakarma was posted at the Ayodhya temple as part of its special security force (SSF).
He was from Khajpur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Ambedkar Nagar district, the fourth of five brothers, his elder sibling Dileep Kumar told the media. Kumar also said the family wanted a thorough inquiry into the shooting.
While the cause of Vishwakarma’s death is yet to be concluded, this is not the first case of accidental firing or suicide on the Ram Temple grounds.
On 26 March, Ram Pratap, a platoon commander in the 32nd battalion of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) was seriously injured after a bullet accidentally fired from his AK-47 rifle pierced through his chest. Pratap, however, was lucky to survive after treatment at the trauma centre in Lucknow.
On 25 August last year, a PAC constable had died after he suffered a gunshot from his service rifle inside the Ram Janmabhoomi premises.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: 654 suicides & 50,000 resignations in 5 years — the crisis stalking India’s CAPFs