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17-year-old 'shoots himself dead' with dad's licensed gun in Bengaluru

Rahul Bhandari alias Rahul Singh, 17, was found lying in a pool of blood on the pavement near Headquarters Training Command, Indian Air Force, in RMV 2nd Stage 
Last Updated 17 September 2021, 22:01 IST

A teenage son of an ex-serviceman was found shot dead at a BMTC bus stop in northern Bengaluru around the crack of dawn on Friday. Police suspect he shot himself with the licensed pistol of his father.

Rahul Bhandari alias Rahul Singh, 17, was found lying in a pool of blood on the pavement near Headquarters Training Command, Indian Air Force, in RMV 2nd Stage around 5.30 am. Police found a gunshot wound to his head, and a pistol, a belt and a mobile phone lying next to the body.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central) M N Anucheth, who examined the spot where Rahul’s body was found by a passerby, said that the entry wound was located on the right side of the head and the exit wound on the left.

Rahul was a class 12 student at Army Public School and lived with his parents and an elder sister in Ganganagar, RT Nagar. His father, Bhagat Singh, is a retired army havaldar.

The family is originally from Uttarakhand and has been living in Bengaluru for nearly two decades now. They are traumatised by the teenager’s death and denied that he had any issues at home.

The circumstances leading to the discovery of Rahul’s death are clear but the reason behind the suspected suicide is not. Rahul left home around 3.30 am, apparently for a morning walk, while his family members were still asleep. He took his father’s pistol from the cupboard without anyone’s knowledge. He walked to the bust stop and shot himself at point-blank range, the DCP said.

An officer from the jurisdictional Sadashivanagar police gave a slightly different account of Rahul’s final hours. He said Rahul had knocked on his parents’ bedroom door around 3 am and asked for one of his beautiful photographs. His father was startled by the request and asked him to go back to sleep before shutting the door, the officer said.

CCTV footage shows Rahul walking through Binny Mill Road, Ganganagar, around 3.45 am, and using his phone.

His family discovered his absence soon after. They tried reaching him by phone to find out if he had gone for the walk but the calls went unanswered, said a senior officer police investigating the case.

Unconfirmed reports said Rahul had asked for Rs 500 from his father but was denied.

His parents told the police that they had trained him in using the pistol, which the ex-serviceman had bought after retirement.

It was Rahul’s routine to go for a walk, in the morning or at night, whenever he felt stressed by studies. He had been preparing for a class exam, and before the suspected suicide, had studied from Thursday night through early Friday morning. He was good at studies, and had scored about 90% in the class 10 exams, police said, quoting the family.

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(Published 17 September 2021, 19:54 IST)

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