Military station shooting: Accused was allegedly sodomized by fellow jawans
Allegations of sodomy and sexual assault have surfaced following the arrest of the Indian Army jawan accused of killing four soldiers at the Bathinda military station in Punjab last Wednesday. According to the Tribune India, a senior police official said that the jawan, identified as Mohan Desai, was allegedly sexually assaulted and sodomized by his fellow soldiers and he killed them as revenge.
Why does this story matter?
An INSAS rifle and cartridges had gone missing from the Bathinda military station artillery unit last week. Two days later, a person reportedly in civilian clothes killed four soldiers and fled away. It was initially suspected to be a terrorist attack amid the resurrected separatist Khalistan movement in Punjab, but this speculation was later ruled out.
Accused dumped rifle, bullets in sewer pit
Bathinda SSP Gulneet Singh Khurana said that Desai stole a rifle, a magazine, and eight light machine gun (LMG) bullets, which were used in the crime. After the incident, he dumped the rifle and bullets in a sewer pit within the cantonment. As per the FIR, 19 empty shells of an INSAS rifle were found at the site, and the rifle was recovered later.
Soldiers were killed in sleep
Desai will be produced before a district court in Bathinda, where the police will seek his remand for further questioning. The soldiers were reportedly killed while they were asleep. They went to bed around 2:00am, per reports. The assailant checked twice at 3:00am and 4:00am to ensure that they had fallen asleep, the Indian Express reported quoting a police official.
Desai was earlier thought to be eyewitness
Initially, Desai was believed to be the eyewitness in the case. He had earlier tried to mislead the investigation by saying that he spotted two kurta pajama-clad men with covered faces in the barracks near the officers' mess. On the day of the incident, another soldier was found dead in an apparent case of suicide. No foul play was suspected in the case.
