Army jawan arrested for allegedly killing four personnel at Bathinda military station

An Army jawan was arrested on Monday for allegedly killing four personnel at the Bathinda military station in Punjab on April 12, The Indian Express reported.

The jawan has been identified as Desai Mohan and has confessed to the killings, the Army said in a statement, according to ANI.

The Army also said that initial investigations show that Mohan killed the personnel due to a personal animosity.

“The individual is currently in police custody and further details are being ascertained,” the Army said. “It is reiterated that there is no terror angle as speculated earlier.”

The jawans – Sagar Banne (25), Kamalesh R (24), Yogesh Kumar J (24) and Santosh M Nagaral (25) – were shot dead at the Bathinda Military Station in Punjab in the early hours of April 12.

During their investigation, the police found that Mohan had falsely stated that he had seen two masked people wearing kurta pyjamas running into a nearby forest after allegedly carrying out the killings. The police had booked two unidentified persons based on his statement.

However, the police later found out that it was Mohan himself who killed the jawans.

“The jawans slept at around 2 am,” an unidentified police officer involved in the investigation told The Indian Express. “He [Mohan] checked on them at 3 am and then at 4 am before finally committing the crime with the rifle he had stolen a few days earlier from a nearby sentry post.”

On Wednesday evening, hours after the killings, another soldier was found dead from a gunshot injury at the Bathinda Military Station. In a statement, the Army had said that the jawan’s service weapon and its cartridge case were found next to his body.

The Army had said that this appeared to be a case of suicide and there was no connection with the killings. The police have not indicated that foul play was involved in this case.