M4PNews| MOHALI:
A 22-year-old youth died after a bullet fired accidentally from the gun of a security guard hit him on the head in a freak incident at a petrol station in Sector 79 on Tuesday night.
The incident happened around 11.50 pm when Kuldeep Singh accidentally dropped his .12 bore gun and it fired as the safety latch was not off. Cops at the crime scene said the bullet ricocheted off a wall, rubbed off a dustbin, went piercing another dustbin to hit Pankaj Rawat, who was standing at a distance of around 5-ft from Kuldeep Singh. Rawat was to get married on April 27. He was sitting on the floor when the bullet hit his head, said a police official. Rawat hailed from Unnao district in Uttar Pradesh. He had been working at the Indian Oil petrol station for past five years.
Police said the guard had kept his loaded gun along the wall of the petrol station in a vertical position. The safety lock of the gun was on. “When Kuldeep was pulling out his tiffin from his bag, the gun fell down and a round was fired,” said Sector 66 station house officer Manjeet Singh.
According to relatives of the victim, Rawat was rushed to Sri Guru Harkrishan Sahib Eye Institute & Superspeciality Hospital, Sohana, where he was declared brought dead. The body was kept in the mortuary and would be handed over to family members after post-mortem. Mahinder Rawat, elder brother of the victim, is also an employee in the petrol pump.
A case was registered under Section 304 (homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC and under Sections 30-54-59 of the Arms Act. Kuldeep Singh, a resident ofFatehgarh Sahib, was arrested.