- Sujal Pradhan, NET Correspondent, Sikkim
The mortal remains of three Indian Reserve Battalion (IRBn) jawans from Sikkim who were killed by their colleague at Haiderpur Water Plant in New Delhi were brought to Sikkim today. Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang and other cabinet colleagues paid their tributes in Rangpo.
Identified as – Pinto Namgyal Bhutia and Indra Lal Chhetri, the two soldiers were killed on the spot, while Dhanhang Subba was declared ‘brought dead’ by the doctors of a nearby hospital in Delhi.
The three jawans were killed by their colleague – Prabin Rai on July 18 afternoon, who later surrendered before the nearby Police Station in Delhi’s Rohini area.
Among the three deceased, Indra Lal Chettri hails from Bermoik in West Sikkim. Dhan Hang Subba is from Machong in Pakyong district and Pintso Namgyal Bhutia hailed from Sumin Lingzey in Pakyong district.
The mortal remains was received by Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang (Golay), along with families of the three deceased Jawans. CM was accompanied by the cabinet ministers, Legislative Assembly speaker – LB Das and Director General of Police (DGP) – A. Sudhakar Rao, and other personnel.
The guard of honour and gun salute was delivered by Sikkim Police and Sikkim Armed Police.
Addressing the mediapersons, the DGP shared, “Delhi Police is yet to share the details of their investigation with Sikkim Police. Such incidents happen sometimes, it is not just happening with Sikkim police. This is a human error, hence we can give any comment on the incident. The stress is common with everyone. We try to manage the stress among the Jawans. In fact recently we have signed an Memorandum of Understanding with NIMHANS Bangalore to discuss about mental health. We will be training our own workforce almost 50 of them such that they can discuss mental health situation with other police force. They will discuss elaborately about the mental health situation”.
The DGP further informed that Rs. 4 lakhs each will be given from Sikkim Police fund to the families of the three deceased as ‘ex-gratia’ amount.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister will also sanction Rs 5 lakhs each as ‘ex-gratia’ amount from the Chief Minister’s fund.
