CRPF trooper kills four colleagues in Chhattisgarh

Raipur : A CRPF trooper said to be mentally disturbed shot dead four sleeping colleagues and critically wounded another in Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh early Tuesday, police said.

The incident occurred shortly after midnight at a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp of 111 battalion in Aranpur village, some 60 km from Dantewada town and 440 km from the state capital Raipur.

The killer, Deep Kumar Tiwari, has been arrested, District Superintendent of Police Narendra Khare told IANS on telephone.

Tiwari was mentally disturbed and he opened fire on five of his colleagues without any reason, Khare said.

Inspector General of Police Himanshu Gupta said police were interrogating Tiwari.

“The accused, who belongs to Uttar Pradesh, is not giving much details but it seems he had some altercation with a colleague hours before the incident,” Gupta said.

“Tiwari chose to open fire when his colleagues were asleep.”

The dead men were identified as Chandan Singh of Gujarat, Ramesh (Haryana), Purshottam (Chhattisgarh) and Aniruddha Singh of Uttar Pradesh.

Three of them died instantly while the fourth succumbed to his injuries on his way to hospital.

The injured trooper, Sunil Sawant of Maharashtra, was in “extremely critical” condition, the officer said. He had been shifted to a hospital in Jagdalpur town.

Aranpur village lies in a thickly forested area and is part of a region dominated by the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist.