Mathura, October 11
A police constable went berserk and allegedly gunned down three persons, including a colleague, near a temple at a village on the Rajasthan-Uttar Pradesh border today.
Chandrakant Dixit of the Rajasthan Police posted at the Punchari outpost in the Deeg area first shot Sharda, 62-year-old wife of the priest of Punchari temple, and then her husband when he tried to stop him, Mathura SSP Satyendra Veer Singh said.
When Dixit’s colleague Kunvar Pal Punchari tried to intervene, he was also shot, the SSP said.
After a stand-off with police officials lasting a few hours Dixit finally handed over the rifle to a sadhu in the temple. He was overpowered.
Teams from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, which reached the spot soon after the incident, were unable initially to take Dixit into custody because he refused to surrender his rifle.
The police said it was still clueless about the motive behind the shootout.
Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria had earlier told PTI the constable was suspected to be mentally disturbed.
— PTI
