Midnapore, Sept. 16: An air force officer at the Kalaikunda base was shot dead this morning by a sergeant alle- gedly because he had asked the man to stay on for another shift after night duty.

Junior warrant officer Dinesh Chandra Mishra, 49, a radio technician, was originally from Bhopal.

Sergeant Debendra Singh Rajput, 38, has been arrested.

“Around 6.30am, the officer was allotting duties. There was a shortage of personnel and he assigned morning duty to the sergeant,” said a police officer at Kalaikunda, about 130km from Calcutta.

Rajput, who repairs communications equipment and also serves as a guard, told Mishra he had just completed night duty and was too tired for another shift, during which he would have to man the technical area, which includes the runway.

“The officer (Mishra) would not listen and ordered Rajput to do the job. He protested and an altercation ensued,” the police officer said.

Suddenly, Rajput fired several rounds from his carbine. “One of the bullets pierced Mishra’s lungs and he died at the air force hospital,” the police officer said.

Rajput is from Farukhabad in Uttar Pradesh.

Air force sources were surprised Mishra was allotting duties as it was not his job.

West Midnapore superintendent of police Rajesh Singh said: “We have started a murder case against Rajput.”

An Eastern Command spokesperson at Fort William said the air force would also conduct its own inquiry. “We handed over Rajput to the police because it was a case of murder.”