Army jawan shoots himself dead at DRDO facility in Odisha’s Kendrapara

An army jawan allegedly shot himself with his service rifle, when he was on duty at the Radar Observatory Air Surveillance unit of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Odisha's Kendrapara district, police told PTI on Sunday.

According to the news agency, the 35-year-old jawan, identified as Sepoy Raj Sekharan was on duty at the facility of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at Kiyarbanka village in Mahakalpada police station area. Sepoy Raj Sekharan, a native of Tamil Nadu, shot himself with his service rifle at around 2 am on Sunday.

Moments later, he was found lying in a pool of blood and was later rushed to a nearby government-run hospital. However, he was declared brought dead, a police officer told PTI.

According to the initial investigation, the incident appears to be a prima facie case of suicide and a further probe is underway. The service rifle of the army jawan has been sent for examination, Inspector Bimal Kumar Mallik of Mahalakpada police station told the news agency. So far there has been no official statement released by the army or DRDO about the incident. 

In a similar incident, an Assam Rifles soldier opened fire at his colleagues in January. At last, he shot himself dead after injuring six army men at his battalion in south Manipur, reported Hindustan Times.

Soon after the incident, Assam Rifles released a statement informing about the incident that took place at Assam Rifles Battalion deployed close to the Indo-Myanmar border in South Manipur.

"One Assam Rifles Jawan opened fire on his colleagues injuring six of them (all injured are non-Manipuris); later the individual shot himself. All injured have been evacuated to Military Hospital for further treatment and reported to be stable” read the statement, according to HT.

Assam Rifles also clarified that the incident was not associated with the ongoing conflict in the state. No person injured in the incident belonged to Manipur. An investigation was initiated into the incident to ascertain the facts.