KOCHI: In a suspected case of suicide, a 23-year-old sailor died of bullet injury from his own service gun at the Naval Base here on Sunday. Rakshit Kumar Parmar, who hailed from Kheda district of Gujarat and was a sailor with Electrical Mechanician (Power) II, suffered the fatal injury while on duty on board INS Jamuna, a ship under the Southern Naval Command (SNC) at Kochi.“The incident occurred around 7:30 am when the sailor sustained a serious injury from a gunshot fired from his duty weapon he was carrying while performing the duty of security sentry on-board INS Jamuna,” said the Navy spokesperson in a release.
Though Parmar was rushed to the naval hospital INHS Sanjivani, he could not be revived despite the best efforts of doctors and breathed his last at 9.40 am. A case of unnatural death has been registered with the police and a board of inquiry has been ordered by SNC to investigate the incident, the release said.
Mattancherry ACP S Vijayan told ‘Express’, “As per the preliminary inquiry by the police, it is a suspected case of suicide. The bullet was fired from the sailor’s official gun. It appears to have entered from under the sailor’s chin and exited from his skull. We have registered a case of unnatural death and suicide.”
The Navy officers are yet to ascertain whether the incident was accidental misfiring or suicide. A team led by Harbour Police SI is investigating the case.Rakshit’s family in Gujarat has been informed of the incident. The sailor is survived by his parents and a brother. His body will be handed over to them after postmortem, said police officers.