Judge’s guard kills self with service gun on court premises
Times of India | 6 February 2025
12 Kolkata: A 45-year-old Kolkata Police constable, recruited in 2005 and posted in the security of a judge, allegedly died by suicide on the city civil court premises in the Dalhousie area on Wednesday morning. Gopal Kumar Nath was found around 7 am and taken to a hospital where doctors declared him dead after examination.
Cops said a 9 mm pistol, his service revolver, and five unused cartridges were found lying in front of a chair in which Nath had been seated. The chair was placed between the court stairs and adjoining the compound boundary. Sources said Nath had a bullet wound in his forehead, and that his wallet and placed were placed neatly beside him on a chair. Prima facie, it appears that he shot himself with his gun.
"The postmortem findings have been verbal so far. The injuries include a deep entry wound in the frontal region passing through brain tissue and one exit wound in the middle of the occipital region of the head. There was scalp haematoma in the frontal and parietal regions, and sufficient amounts of blood clots were found in the track and surroundings of brain tissue. All organs except the brain were congested. Thus, death was due to the effects of the injuries, antemortem, and suicidal," said joint CP (crime & traffic) Rupesh Kumar.
"While we are studying CCTV footage, we are not sure about the exact time of the incident. We have informed his family. The detective department's scientific wing and sniffer dogs have been pressed into service to ascertain if there was foul play," an officer said.
The incident has again raised questions on whether all rules are being followed regarding the allocation of service weapons. It is also not clear why Nath tried to stay overnight at the court instead of returning home to Baranagar, where he lived on rent, after his duty was over.
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