CA aspirant shot by roommate in east Delhi

NEW DELHI: A 19-year-old student was shot dead by his roommate with the service pistol of a police constable who shared the apartment with them in east Delhi's Shakarpur on Saturday evening. The deceased has been identified as Raghvendra Singh. The accused was Raghvendra's college classmate and the two also studied at the same chartered accountancy coaching centre.
The incident was reported from S-Block of Shakarpur near the School Block road around 8pm. The two youths, Raghvendra Singh and Shashank Kumar, had returned home from their tuition classes when they found their roommate Robin's service pistol on the bed. Robin had left it unguarded and gone to the washroom. Shashank started fiddling with the firearm and even mocked shooting it.
Shashank did not realize that the firearm did not have the safety latch on and pointed it at Raghvendra and squeezed the trigger. The shot hit Raghvendra on the head. Hearing the crack of gunfire, Robin rushed to the room and snatched the pistol from Shashank. They found Raghvendra was still breathing and informed their other roommate, Surender, a cop at the same police station and beat constable of the area. Surender called a PCR and rushed Raghvendra to AIIMS Trauma Center.
"We had heard the gunfire and rushed downstairs, but Shashank told us that Raghvendra had slipped and fallen in the bathroom that led to his head injury," said a Atul, a neighbour.
Raghvendra succumbed to his injuries on Sunday morning. The cops informed his family members who reached Delhi. His cousin Vipin, who had reached the house immediately after the incident, said that Raghvendra had come to Delhi last year and joined a private university in Noida to pursue his B.Com course. He also started pursuing chartered accountancy and was undergoing coaching at a private institute in Laxmi Nagar.
Police said that the accused, Shashank Kumar, and the constable Robin have been arrested. A departmental probe has also been initiated against Robin to find why he took the service pistol to his residence.
The flat owner, SS Agarwal, said that initially Surender had rented the flat and introduced him to his colleague Robin. Robin knew Shashank since they came from the same village in Haryana and brought him and Raghvendra to the house. Agarwal said that he did not verify the antecedents of any of the men since they had come with Surender's reference.
On Sunday morning, Raghvendra's body was sent for postmortem and later handed over to his family. Raghvendra's father Krishna is a farmer in a village in Ballia. He has a younger brother who is in school.
Police said that Shashank was arrested on Saturday night and questioned. A case of murder has been registered against him. Robin has been booked for negligence for leaving the pistol unlocked.