CISF man guns down 4 colleagues

TT, Patna, Jan. 12: A Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) constable, ostensibly miffed by his duty roster, today shot dead four of his colleagues at an upcoming power plant at Nabinagar in Aurangabad district, around 130km southwest of Patna.

The incident occurred around 12.30pm when constable Balveer Singh, 28, was preparing to leave after finishing his duty at the plant, which is run by a joint venture of the National Thermal Power Company and the Bihar Power Generation Company.

Balveer had a verbal spat with colleagues, apparently over the duty roster, and fired indiscriminately from his Insas rifle.

Head constables Amarnath Mishra and Bachcha Sharma died on the spot. Another head constable Arvind Kumar and assistant sub-inspector Gauri Shankar Ram succumbed to bullet wounds when they were being rushed to hospital.

Upendra Singh, public relations officer of Narayan Medical College at Jamuhar in Rohtas district, said the two were declared "dead on arrival".

Mishra was from Korthu Ghanshyampur village in Darbhanga district, Sharma was a resident of Rukunpura in Patna, Arvind hailed from Barwala in Uttar Pradesh and Ram's home was in Jharkhand's Garhwa district.

Other jawans eventually overpowered Balveer, a resident of Raopur village near Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh, and handed him over to policemen who had rushed to the spot.

An investigating officer said Balveer had returned to Nabinagar about 10 days ago after attending yoga classes.

"Balveer was on duty from 9am to 12 noon today. He had apparently objected to his duty in the morning shift to his seniors, who simply ignored him," the officer said.

Manjit Singh, CISF deputy commandant-cum-public relations officer, said the reason behind the incident was yet to be ascertained.

"A court of inquiry has been ordered into the incident. It will not be prudent to make any comment till the inquiry is complete," he told The Telegraph over phone from Delhi.

Balveer's rifle has been handed over to the local police and senior CISF officers, including the eastern region inspector-general and deputy inspector, have already reached Nabinagar, Manjit added.

Aurangabad superintendent of police Satya Prakash confirmed that four CISF personnel had died in the incident.

"The constable who fired at the four has been taken into custody and is being quizzed to ascertain the reason behind the incident," Prakash said.

A senior CISF officer said Balveer "had joined the force in May 2008 and we never got any complaint against him".