An Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) died after his service rifle allegedly went off accidentally in Naxal sensitive Dhamtari district, a senior police officer said on Monday. The deceased was identified as Dilip Chhavada (48) who was on duty when the incident occurred under Borai police station limits, Superintendent of
Police (SP) Dhamtari Manish Sharma informed The Pioneer. ASI Chhavada belonging to 211th battalion of the CRPF was posted in Borai CRPF camp located about 120 km south of Dhamtari. The incident occurred in the morning hours when he was on an area domination exercise along with his team members about 1.5 km away from Borai camp the SP said.
During the exercise, Chhavada’s colleagues heard a gunshot and rushed towards the ASI where they found that bullets from his service rifle had his chest, he said. He was immediately rushed to a hospital in Kanker where he was declared brought dead, the ASP said. On being asked about the possibility of suicide committed by the ASI, the SP said that it would be only known after investigation.
The victim was the native of Gujarat and his family members have been informed about the incident, Sharma maintained. A case has been registered in this connection and the body has been sent for post mortem, the SP added.