West Bengal: BSF jawans shoot each other ‘after argument’ at camp along Bangladesh border

BEHRAMPORE: Two BSF jawans, both posted as head constables, reportedly shot each other after an argument at the Charkakmari border outpost on Monday morning. The incident took place barely hours after a BSF constable in Punjab’s Attari killed four colleagues before fatally shooting himself.
The outpost is located in the Bamnabad BSF camp under Sagarpara police station limits, close to the Bangladesh border in Murshidabad district.
BSF officials rushed the duo to Sagarpara Block primary health centre, where doctors said they had been brought dead. They were identified as S G Shekhar (44) and Jonson Toppo (45) of 117 Battalion. BSF officials said the families of both Shekhar in Tamil Nadu and Toppo in Chhattisgarh had been contacted.
According to doctors, there were multiple injury marks on both bodies. Senior police officers said the shots had been fired from the jawans’ own service rifles.
Senior BSF officials have started to interrogate colleagues to ascertain the chain of events. DIG of BSF, South Bengal Frontier, S S Goleria rushed to the hospital and then visited the border outpost. Shovan Das, BDO Jalangi, was present to supervise the inquest process.
Goleria said, “Police have already lodged an FIR and an investigation has been initiated. We are also making inquiries.” Das said that there had been 15 rounds of firing. According to some colleagues, Shekhar and Toppo had recently rejoined their duties after a few weeks’ leave. However, no BSF official confirmed this.