In what appears to be an act driven by growing level of frustration, a top official of the Indian Air Forces shot himself in the thigh on Wednesday.
IAF’s Vice Chief Air Marshal Shirish Baban Deo what Indian media claimed accidentally shot himself and later he was shifted to the RR Hospital in Delhi Cantonment where he underwent a surgery. He is reportedly in stable condition.
The incident happened around two months after Air Marshal Deo had taken over the new office of vice chief in July. He had replaced Air Marshal BS Dhanoa, who is now the Air Chief.
SB Deo, who was commissioned as a fighter pilot in the Air Force in 1979, is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy and the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington.
This is not the first incident of its kind as it has happened in the past in India. Earlier this year in January, an Indian Air Force soldier committed suicide at Air Force Station in Udhampur.
The soldier identified as Sachin Kumar Singh, 30, was found hanging from the ceiling fan of his room inside residential quarters of the Air Force Station in Udhampur district. Sachin Kumar was resident of Agra, Uttar Pradesh.
Last year, a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) soldier named Suresh Gaikwad allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself using his service rifle at Kempe Gowda Airport in Bengaluru.
According to The Financial Express, the incident took place this morning as Gaikwad was performing his duties at the airport.
The incident took place just days after a paramilitary soldier from one of India’s elite security units had shot dead four of his senior dead on Thursday in an apparent row over leaves in Bihar’s Naxal-hit Aurangabad district.
