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A Jharkhand Armed Police (JAP) driver died while cleaning a rifle at the JAP-III camp in Govindpur, 15km from the Dhanbad district headquarters, on Thursday.
Bablu Kumar Singh (35), a JAP-III constable from the 2000 batch, was found with a bullet in the neck. But, it is not clear whether the native of Dhanarua in Patna, Bihar, was killed accidentally or he committed suicide over what a section of his colleagues say was frustration over not being granted leave.
According to sources at the Govindpur camp, a gunshot was heard around 7.35am. Singh was found dead at the guardroom of the magazine house, where he was last seen cleaning a rifle.
Govindpur OC Abhay Shankar, who visited the spot, refused to label the incident as suicide before the probe was completed.
Singh’s colleagues, however, insisted that he shot himself dead over the delay in leave being granted. They said the constable’s family — wife Rima and two children aged six and four — had arrived from Bihar just two days ago and he wanted a week’s leave.
“But, the new commandant, who joined the camp a month ago, is very strict in granting leave. Jawans are depressed and frustrated,” one of them said.
Commandant Rai denied the allegations. “Singh returned from a 20-day leave on August 22. He submitted another application on October 12 for a week’s holiday from October 22. The matter is being processed,” he said, adding that JAP would initiate a court of inquiry into the death.
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