Following repeated deaths of police personnel in the State from their own weapons, the Police Department has issued a directive to all the SPs to ensure proper training for them and also make them acquainted with the do’s and don’ts while cleaning arms allotted to them.
The step has been taken hence at least four Jawans were killed in last 20 days while cleaning their rifles including Vijay Singh Purti, who met the same fate on Saturday while cleaning his AK-47 in his barrack at Morhabadi Football Stadium in Ranchi.
“All the SPs have been asked to ensure effective training programmes in their districts at regular intervals so that no such incident takes place in future,” said ADG (Operations) and Jharkhand Police Spokesperson RK Mallick. They have also been asked to make everyone well acquainted with the do’ and don’ts while cleaning their arms, he added.
Mallick said that the all the death benefits, provided to police personnel who dies on duty in normal circumstances, are given to them which includes a Government job and some financial assistance from the State Government.
Remarkably, four persons – Sanjay Kumar Ekka in Bokaro on June 14, Sawna Hansda in Giridih on June 19, Suraj at Rahe OP in Ranchi on June 25, were killed accidentally while cleaning their arms in Jharkhand. One CRPF personnel S Guru Prasad also lost his life in a similar manner on June 19.
Purti, a Police Constable with the District Police hailing from Chaibasa found dead on his bed when his girl friend reached his room while his AK-47 Rifle remained stuck between his two legs. Police said that he got killed accidentally while cleaning his own AK-47 Rifle.
At the same time, Sargent Major TK Jha at New Police lines in Ranchi asserted that it was a normal incident which could happen with anybody while cleaning their guns. “There is nothing new in it, it happens everywhere in the world where the policemen or the army personnel gets killed accidentally while cleaning their arms allotted to them,” said Jha. It is just like a motor accident which could happen with anybody even though they knew everything about driving their vehicles, he added.
Jha said that the arms are cleaned by the police personnel every 2-3 days as it is their responsibility to keep them neat and clean so that it does not get destroyed due to non-maintenance.
“If anybody found being negligent in maintaining their arms allotted to them, departmental action could be taken against them,” said the Sergeant Major.
Some of the weapons are quite delicate and sophisticated that it gets fired on its own, most of the time killing the person taking care of it, he added.
A senior police official on the condition of not revealing his name, on the other hand, said that sometimes triggered are pressed deliberately for various reasons like stress due to family problems and work pressure or sometimes for providing death benefits to their family members.
“There have been instances where the police personnel have also killed themselves by their own weapons deliberately under stress after a dispute in the family or at work with a colleague or with senior officers,” said the official requesting anonymity.
It’s a sudden impulse which seizes a person’s capability to think and understand, once they are overpowered by their emotions, he added.