Kathua: The incident of fratricide at the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) camp in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kathua on Tuesday evening may have been the outcome of a dispute over a toddler, the son of the accused.
Four personnel, including an assistant commandant rank officer, were killed after a head constable opened fire at a hydroelectric power project. Officials have revealed that there was a dispute between the accused Avdesh Kumar Singh and his seniors over the presence of the toddler at the high-security camp at times, as reported by Money Control.
The incident occurred at the Sewa-III hydroelectric power project in Mashka village of Basohli, near the Himachal Pradesh border. Singh allegedly entered the Operations Section office near the main gate and fired 18 rounds from his service AK-47.
The four personnel killed were Assistant Commandant Ankit Kumar Pandey, Sub-Inspector Lakshman Singh and constables Rafiq Ahmed and Sandeep Kumar. They were taken to an NHPC hospital in Himachal Pradesh where they died of their injuries later.
According to officials, Singh was posted at the same camp as his wife, Head Constable Pooja Devi. The two worked different shifts, and police officers investigating the incident said the couple would bring their toddler to the camp while handing the child from one parent to the other during shift changes.
“The couple worked in different shifts at the same site. When one parent reported for duty, they brought the toddler along to hand him over to the spouse returning home. The couple was asked not to bring the child to the project site,” an official has been quoted as saying.
This allegedly led to a disagreement over the previous few days. Pooja would bring the child with her while performing Quarter Guard duty when Singh was on duty, but the unit administration had not allowed her to enter or remain in the Quarter Guard area with the child.
“Even today, one of them had brought the child to the site to hand over to the spouse, and someone complained about it to the company commander. This led to an altercation,” the official added.
The complaint was made to Assistant Commandant Pandey, allegedly angering Singh, sources revealed. He then went to the Operations Section office, where Pandey and the other three personnel were present, and opened 18 rounds of fire.
The head constable was subsequently overpowered by other CISF personnel and arrested. He was carrying 150 rounds of ammunition at that time. His service weapon has also been seized.