Personal animosity could be behind killing of four jawans at Bathinda station: Army

Chandigarh, April 17 (IANS) The Indian Army on Monday confirmed the arrest of a gunner who confessed to stealing an INSAS rifle for allegedly killing his four colleagues owing to personal animosity at the Bathinda military station in Punjab last week.

The arrested gunner, Desai Mohan, was an eyewitness who had falsely claimed that two masked men in kurta pyjama' committed the crime in the wee hours of April 12.

"After sustained interrogation, one individual named gunner Desai Mohan from the artillery unit has confessed to his involvement in stealing of an INSAS rifle and killing four of his colleagues to the police," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

Initial investigations indicate that the incident was apparently triggered by personal animosity, it said.

"As per his confession, on the morning of April 9, he stole the weapon along with a magazine. He then hid the weapon. At around 4:30 am on April 12, while he was on sentry duty, he recovered the weapon from its hiding place, moved to the first floor, and killed all the four armymen while they were asleep.

"The individual then proceeded to throw the weapon into a sewage pit. The weapon and additional ammunition have been recovered from the sewage pit.

"The statement made by the individual while filing the initial FIR on April 12, mentioning two persons in civil dress with INSAS rifle and axe, was an attempt to divert the attention of the investigating agencies," the statement said, adding, "There is no terror angle as speculated earlier in some media reports."

Meanwhile, Bathinda SSP Gulneet Singh Khurana told the media that Desai Mohan has turned out to be the killer and has been arrested by police.

Police officers investigating the case said the motive behind the act seems to be personal, largely "physical harassment".

After the killing of the four armymen from the artillery regiment -- Sagar Banne, Kamalesh R, Yogesh Kumar J, and Santosh M Nagral -- the army had said a search team has located the INSAS rifle along with the magazine involved in the killing.

The police had said that 19 empty shells of an INSAS rifle were recovered from the crime scene.