By IANS
New Delhi : A head constable of the Delhi Armed Police (DAP) suffered a wound in his left thigh after a colleague’s revolver went off accidentally outside Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s heavily guarded office here Friday.
Head Constable and commando Sanjiv Kumar was admitted to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital after the accidental firing around noon, the police said. Doctors proclaimed him out of danger.
Kumar’s colleague Suraj Pal has been arrested.
The firing occurred when Kumar and Constable Suraj Pal were both in a small cabin in the parking area outside the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in South Block near the presidential palace Rashtrapati Bhavan.
It was still unclear that how the firing occurred, but police sources claimed that Kumar had taken the .38 bore service revolver from Suraj Pal and was fiddling with it when the revolver went off and the bullet hit him.
“We have registered a case of negligent firing and mishandling of firearms. Suraj Pal has been arrested and Sanjiv Kumar’s statement is being recorded,” Delhi Police spokesperson Rajan Bhagat said.
“Sanjiv Kumar could also be arrested once the inquiry is concluded,” Bhagat added.
A joint team of Delhi Police and intelligence officials quizzed Suraj Pal at length.
Joint Commissioner of Police (New Delhi Range) Ajay Kashyap said there had been no security breach at the PMO.
“There was no security breach. It was a case of accidental fire. Sanjiv was injured when a bullet was accidentally fired from the service revolver of Suraj Pal,” Kashyap told IANS.
Hearing the gunshot, officials of the elite Special Protection Group (SPG), responsible for security in the area, rushed to the spot.
Suraj Pal is from the New Delhi district police while Sanjiv is with the second battalion of the DAP. Both were deployed outside the PMO.
In May last year, a 42-year-old property dealer Kishori Lal Sehgal allegedly shot himself near the Jaipur Polo Ground opposite the prime minister’s residence in an apparent suicide bid.
He took the extreme step because of his wife’s suspected illicit love affair.
On July 28, 2006, in what was a major security breach, police had arrested two young women and a man who drove past the first barrier at the prime minister’s residence in an inebriated state.