Pune: The Army sepoy who suffered a gunshot injury to his neck at a security post inside National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla, on Sept 11 died during treatment on Wednesday evening.The soldier was identified as Sepoy Rakesh Kumar Singh (46) of the 282 Defence Security Corps (DSC) platoon, posted at NDA. Police said he had fired a bullet from his service rifle. He was undergoing treatment at Military Hospital, Khadakwasla. Singh’s death comes less than two weeks after the body of an Army havildar posted at NDA was found on railway tracks near the academy.According to Uttamnagar police, Singh suffered a gunshot wound to the neck at 10.18am on Sept 11 at post number 8 inside the academy. The soldier was immediately taken to Military Hospital.Singh’s condition was critical following the injury. The police conducted a spot panchanama and recovered the shell of the bullet fired from his service rifle.Senior inspector Raghvendra Kshirsagar of Uttamnagar police said, “Singh fired a bullet from his service rifle at the post. We are yet to ascertain whether it was a suicide or the bullet went off by mistake. We handed over his body to the family members after the postmortem.”A senior NDA officer told TOI, “We have launched an internal inquiry into the matter to understand the circumstances that prompted him to take this drastic step. The inquiry panel will verify his personal information to understand his mental state in the past few weeks. It is difficult to comment on it at this juncture.”
