Covid-19 fear suicide in CRPF ... 6 paramilitary death... 770 positive.. Fateh Singh, of the CRPF’s 96 battalion, killed himself with his service rifle in Mattan, Anantnag

Muzaffar Raina , TT, 13.05.20, Srinagar:  A sub-inspector with the Central Reserve Police Force posted in Kashmir shot himself dead on Monday, leaving behind a purported suicide note that suggested he was worried that he had contracted the novel coronavirus disease.

Police sources said Fateh Singh, of the CRPF’s 96 battalion, killed himself with his service rifle in Mattan, Anantnag. Officials said he was rushed to hospital where doctors declared him brought dead.

This was the first Covid-19-related suicide in Jammu and Kashmir, which has recorded 934 cases so far, including 55 on Tuesday, the highest single-day spike in the Union Territory.

Hours later, on Monday night, another CRPF official shot himself in Srinagar. Assistant sub-inspector Bengali Babu, of 49 battalion, died on the spot.

Jazib Ahmad, station house officer, Mattan, said Singh, 50, may have been suffering from depression. “We recovered a suicide note in which he had written in Hindi that he feared he had contracted (the virus), although he was tested (after his death) and the reports have come negative,” Ahmad told The Telegraph.

Police sources said the sub-inspector, a resident of Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, had written in the note that nobody should touch his body.

CRPF spokesperson, Kashmir operations sector, Junaid Khan said: “Whenever any such incident happens, there is an inquiry…. The only confirmation right now is that one of the sub-inspectors committed suicide yesterday at Mattan, Anantnag.”

CRPF spokesperson in Srinagar Pankaj Singh said ASI Bengali Babu, 46, from Gwalior, committed suicide on Monday night in Srinagar’s Karan Nagar locality. Babu, he added, was part of law and order duties the preceding day. No other details were available.

CISF death

A Central Industrial Security Force trooper posted in Calcutta has succumbed to Covid-19, taking the number of coronavirus casualties to six in the 10-lakh-strong central paramilitary forces.

CISF sources said assistant sub-inspector Jharu Burman, 55, posted at the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers Limited security unit, died late on Monday. Burman, who had tested positive, had been admitted to a local hospital.

The CISF has so far reported three Covid-19 deaths, the BSF two and the CRPF one. Nearly 770 positive cases have till now been reported from among the paramilitary forces.