Three hurt in as RPF jawan’s rifle goes off at Metro station

Kolkata: Three persons, including a mother-son duo, were injured at the Dum Dum Metro station on Friday afternoon when two bullets got accidentally fired from an Insas rifle of a Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable who was about to be replaced by another after his duty was over. The third injured is an employee of the Kolkata Metro Railway, which has ordered a high-level probe.

All the injured were rushed to R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital. Later, the mother-son duo were shifted to a private hospital off EM Bypass. The incident took place near an RPF bunker set up by sand-bags close to the ticket counter. According to sources, Dinesh Mina, the RPF constable, was on security duty since morning.

At around 2 pm, his colleague Vishnu Mina came to the bunker to take over the duty. When Dinesh was changing the magazine of the assault rifle infront of Vishnu, the trigger got pulled mistakenly with two bullets got fired instantly, preliminary investigation revealed.

The two bullets, however, hit the floor first before injuring Sangeeta Basu on one of her hands and her nine-year-old son Saptarshi on his right leg while they were standing at the ticket counter. A metro-railway staff passing by them was also wounded. Sangeeta was returning to her in-laws’ residence from her parents’ home at Sonarpur.

Kolkata Metro Railway spokesperson Indrani Banerjee, however, claimed that only one bullet got fired from the rifle. “It happened accidentally. Three persons were injured. Kolkata Metro Railway general manager has ordered high level inquiry to probe the incident. Stern action will be taken after the inquiry report comes.” Dinesh and Vishnu were questioned by the Sinthee police.