CUTTACK: An Armoury Havildar died after a service revolver, which was being cleaned by his colleague, went off accidentally in Kissan Nagar police station on Sunday. The deceased has been identified as Saroj Kumar Patnaik (54) of Patakura locality in Kendrapara district. He was working at Cuttack Reserve Police Headquarters.
As per reports, after servicing arms at Nischintakoili and Nemalo police stations, Armoury Havildar Saroj and his colleague, Constable Amaresh Sethi, had reached Kissan Nagar police station at about 2.30 pm. After cleaning the service revolver of Prabhas Chandra Sahu, IIC of the police station, both went to clean the revolver of ASI Digambar Muduli. While Saroj sat down on a chair in front of Muduli's table, constable Amaresh who was standing by the side of Saroj took the revolver from Muduli and started cleaning. Though ASI Muduli had warned that the revolver was loaded, Sethi went on cleaning without removing the magazine.
According to eyewitnesses, Sethi accidentally pressed the trigger following which the weapon fired and hit Saroj in his right cheek before piercing through head. A profusely bleeding Saroj was rushed to SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack where he was declared dead.
The incident occurred at 2.55 pm following which senior police officials, including Salepur SDPO PK Jena, rushed to Kissan Nagar police station and started investigation with the help of a scientific team to ascertain under what circumstances the mishap occurred.Meanwhile, an unnatural death case has been registered at Mangalabag police station.