Three Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel were shot dead and two others injured when their colleague, said to be mentally unstable, opened fire from his service gun at point blank range on Wednesday at Kalpakkam Nuclear Power Plant near here.
Police sources said that the shoot out took place at 5:30 am in the morning when one of CISF head constable Vijay Pratap Singh suddenly started firing indiscriminately at his colleagues from his 9mm carbine stun gun during the roll call killing Additional Sub Inspector (ASI) Ganesan, Subburaj and Mohan Singh on the spot.
Two others, ASI Pratap Singh and Head Constable Govarthan Prasad, who sustained bullet injuries, were given first aid at the nearest government hospital and later shifted to a private hospital near the city where the condition of Pratap was stated to be critical.
Among the three dead, Subburaj and Ganesan hailed from Virudhunagar and Salem districts in Tamil Nadu, while Mohan Singh was from Rajasthan. The injured Pratap Singh and Govarthan were natives of Uttar Pradesh.
Meanwhile, police have arrested the 42-year old Vijay Pratap Singh and registered a case against him. Cordoning the area, they also recovered the gun and bullets from the spot. Initial investigation revealed that there was an altercation between Vijay Pratap Singh and his colleagues over a petty issue before the roll call at CISF camp situated near the plant. Soon after the fall out, Vijay Pratap Singh took the gun and fired at his colleagues.
According to Kancheepuram district Superintendent of Police C Vijayakumar, the accused was said to be mentally unstable for the last one week. "He (Vijay Pratap Singh) was transferred recently. Initial questioning of his colleagues revealed that the accused was said to be mentally unstable in recent times. This might have led him to indulge in firing", Vijayakumar told reporters.
Meanwhile, a team of investigators from CISF left Mumbai for Kalpakkam Power Plant to conduct a detailed probe on the incident.