The police have arrested a soldier in connection with last week’s murder of four
other army jawans in India’s northern border state of Punjab. The four were shot
dead in their sleep at the Bathinda military base on Wednesday.
District police chief, Gulneet singh Khurana, told journalist that the killings were
suspected to be an act of particular enmity. However, he faces the penalty of
expatriation from the army, a court martial, If the soldier is found guilty. The
Indian army said that upon interrogation, the soldier had confessed that he was
involved in stealing an assault rifle( INSAS- Indian Small Arms System) and
killing his four associates. original examinations indicate that the killings were a
result of some enmity or some other particular reasons. It’s said that the
dogface had hidden the rifle that was stolen on 9th of April, before reacquiring it
on 12th of April, for using it to shoot his associates while he was on watch duty.
Later he threw the armament into a sewage hole and had tried to divert the
investigative agencies by mentioning that he’d seen 2 men flee from the spot.
The rifle was later recaptured and transferred for disquisition. According to the
statement released by the South Western Command of the Indian Army, gunner
Desai Mohan was from the Artillery unit where the incident had happened. The
superintendent of police of Bathinda, Gulneet Singh Khurana, told the media
that Desai Mohan had mentioned in his statement that he saw 2 unidentified
men carrying an INSAS rifle and other an dismissal, but was latterly set up out to
be a diversion to divert the attention of probing agencies. Still after further
probing, Desai Mohan confessed to his crimes.
As per his confession, on early morning of April 9, 2024, he stole the armament
along with a filled magazine. On April 12, 2024, at around 0430 hours, while he
was on his watch duty, he recovered the armament from its caching spot,
moved it to the first bottom, and killed all four labor force while they were fast
asleep. ” the South Western Command of the Indian Army added. The FIR said
that the four boggled jawans have been linked as Sagar, Kamlesh, Santosh and
Yogesh. The blasting incident originally raised alarm as the INSAS rifle and 28
rounds of security had gone missing for 2 days and were latterly set up by the
Army.
This led to a suspicion that some Army labor force was behind this incident. The
four jawans in their mid-20’s were set up in a pool of blood in their separate
apartments. The sensational murder on April 12 had raised a question of security
of the state, especially since it happened amid enterprises of retribution to the
massive crackdown on separatist Sikh dominie Amritpal Singh and his outfit ‘
Waris Punjab Se ’. However, today’s arrest indicated that this incident had
nothing to do with the Khalistani leader. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also
entered a briefing about the incident from Army General Manoj Pandey.
