RAIPUR: CRPF personnel who killed his four colleagues in the fratricidal firing inside the barrack has confessed to his crime and has been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by the Sukma court.
During the preliminary interrogation the jawan Ritesh Ranjan, who is a resident of Bihar, admitted his crime and revealed that he was much upset over the repeated harassment by other members of the paramilitary force who allegedly pester him with deriding remarks against his wife, a highly placed source familiar with the development in an edgy district of Sukma shared with the New Indian Express.
“The jawan claimed he was much distressed over the objectionable remarks and bullying by others following which he took the extreme step. He has been booked under various IPC Sections 302 (punishment for murder), 307 (attempt to murder), and 506 (criminal intimidation). A decision has been taken to put the investigation on a fast track mode to ensure the charges be framed against him within a defined time-bound duration”, a senior police officer based in Sukma said.
On Monday, constable Ranjan opened indiscriminate fire with his service rifle AK-47 and killed four jawans at the Lingapalli base camp of the 50th CRPF battalion in Sukma district, about 500 km south of Raipur.
At the time of the firing that occurred at around 3 am, there was barely 10 personnel sleeping inside the barrack. Usually, each barrack of the security forces has a capacity for around 70-80 personnel.
The conditions of 3 troopers injured in the firing are out of danger.
Ranjan has been lodged in Dantewada sub-jail, in south Chhattisgarh. The incident has alarmed the armed forces deployed for anti-Maoist operations in the conflict-ridden Bastar zone.