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An Assistant Police Inspector (API) allegedly shot himself with his service revolver inside Chunabhatti police station Wednesday after a Gatari amavasya meal,police said. He was taken to Surana Sethia Hospital in Chembur,police said,adding that he was out of danger.
According to an officer,Chandrakant Ghanshyam Mahajan (42),who is the detection and Anti-Terror Cell officer,returned to the police station from a meeting and headed straight to his third floor office. The officer said he was soon to depart for the office of DCP,Zone VI,Lakhmi Gautam,when he shot himself at 3.10 pm. The bullet entered the base of his jaw and exited through the left cheek. He had eaten a little with his colleagues and went inside his cabin. A gunshot was heard five minutes later. Colleagues rushed Mahajan to hospital, the officer said.
Police suspect that a fight with his wife may have led to Mahajan shooting himself. Mahajan lives with his wife and children in Nehru Nagar,Kurla.
Mahajans wife had taken their children to her parents home in Nashik after an argument, Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh. Police,however,are not terming it an attempted suicide,and the incident has been recorded as an accident.
Residents,however,alleged that the shooting may have been the outcome of a party at the police station. Chunabhatti police station is located inside Devratna Nagar,a complex of 12 buildings constructed by MHADA in 2002. The three floors that the police station now occupies earlier served as quarters for Mumbai Police. In 2009,when the state government proposed setting up the police station in one of the buildings,the residents opposed it.
Gatari amavasya celebrations in the police station on Wednesday may have got out of hand,residents said. In the morning,I saw two large plastic tubs filled with meat and numerous containers being brought to the police station. Loud sounds could be heard all afternoon. Around 3.30 pm,I heard a gunshot and minutes later,saw policemen rushing out with the injured Mahajan. They shouted for a vehicle and finally hailed an autorickshaw. They placed Mahajan in the auto and pulled down the flaps. However,the autorickshaw could not turn in the narrow lane,so police put him in their van, a resident said.
Residents plan to intensify protest against the police station now. It is unsafe to have a police station inside a residential building. All kinds of people come here to file a complaint. Whenever police thrash an arrested accused,the cries can be heard all over the complex, the resident said.
We were told that the police station would be set up only till a permanent location was found. When the police station became operational in 2011,it had a staff of hardly 60. Now,it functions at full capacity, said a member of the Devratna Nagar Residents Co-Operative Housing Society Association.
Gautam said he was unaware of the celebration at the police station. Senior inspector of police Damodar Chaudhari and I were in a meeting at my office from noon to 3.15 pm. I do not know what happened at the police station. The incident was an accident, he said.
srinath.rao@expressindia.com
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