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Indian Army says initial investigations indicate personal reasons or animosity behind killings.
Police in India’s northern border state of Punjab have
arrested a soldier in connection with last week’s killing of
four others at a military base, they said.
The killings were suspected to have been motivated by “personal enmity”, district police chief Gulneet Singh Khurana told reporters on Monday.
The four were shot dead in their sleep in barracks at the Bathinda military base
early on Wednesday last week.
If found guilty, the soldier faces the penalty of
expulsion from the army, a court-martial and criminal
prosecution in the civilian courts, the last of which could
bring a life term or even a capital sentence.
READ MORE: Attackers posing as journalists shoot dead ex-Muslim politicians in India
In a statement, the Indian Army said that on
interrogation, the soldier had “confessed to his involvement” in
stealing an assault rifle and killing four colleagues.
“Initial investigations indicate that this was
apparently due to personal reasons or animosity,” it added.
It said the soldier told police he hid the rifle, stolen
on April 9, before retrieving it for use in the shooting on
April 12, at a time when he was on sentry duty.
Later he threw the weapon into a sewage pit from which
it was recovered, the army said, adding that the soldier had
tried to divert suspicion from himself by saying he had seen two
men flee.
“The Indian Army practices zero tolerance of such acts of indiscipline,” it added, vowing to ensure punishment according to the law.
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Source: Reuters
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