In a completely new twist to the killing of Orissa Deputy Inspector General of police Jaswinder Singh on Monday, a top official on Tuesday said the top police official was a victim of 'accidental firing' by one of his Personal Security Officers.
The two PSOs who were travelling with the DIG when the incident occurred were questioned on Monday night and had been taken into custody at Rayagada.
Director General of Police Amarananda Pattanayak, who left for Rayagada on Tuesday morning, said in Bhubaneswar that investigations had revealed that Singh was a victim of 'accidental firing.'
Singh was hit by a bullet fired from the gun of his PSO, the DGP said.
Pattanayak said doubts had been expressed about the sequence of events. Both the PSOs were interrogated and it was found out one of the guns held by a PSO had gone off accidentally, he said. Asked whether he was ruling out naxalite involvement in the incident as per the earlier theory, Pattanayak replied 'absolutely.'
In fact, two PSOs, not one, were travelling with the DIG who was on his way from Sunabeda to Padmapur in Rayagada district where he was scheduled to meet the press in the afternoon to inform about some positive achievements of the police.
Singh had been stopped by groups of people at two places who asked for contribution for the Kali Puja festivities.
After clearing the road on both occasions he was stopped for the third time on the Guma Ghat, about 15 km from Rayagada. He got down from his vehicle and apparently got into an argument with the crowd. There could have been a scuffle which led to the accidental firing by the PSO.
The incident had sent the administration into a shock on Monday while the DGP had not ruled out Maoist involvement in the killing while stating that the DIG should have taken adequate precautionary measures and should not have revealed his travel plans.
The DGP said the officer's body was being sent to his home town of Hoshiarpur in Punjab via Visakhapatnam as his anxious family members were waiting for the body.
