history-sheeter, who was among two persons critically injured in a shooting incident here, succumbed to injuries on Sunday, raising the death toll in the incident to three, officials said.
They said efforts are on to nab the two accused including a policeman who used his service rifle to shoot four persons after a brawl over some issue in Salehar village of Arnia in R S Pura on Friday. Bullet-riddled bodies of two persons, Sabar Chowdhary and Arif Chowdhary, were recovered while Babar Chowdhary and Parveen Kumar were found in a critical condition and shifted to Government Medical College (GMC) hospital following the shooting. Babar Chowdhary, a history-sheeter who had served two jail terms under the Public Safety Act (PSA) in the past, succumbed to injuries while being shifted from GMC hospital to a hospital in Punjab for specialized treatment, the officials said.
They said the body of Babar Chowdhary, who was the elder brother of Sabar Chowdhary, was brought back to GMC from Kathua and its post-mortem is underway. The body will be handed over to family members for last rites after completion of the legal and medical formalities, the officials said. Jammu Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Chandan Kohli had already constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the incident and bring the culprits to book.
After an initial investigation, constable Bhopinder Singh emerged as the main accused who had fired indiscriminately from his AK assault rifle on the four people, the officials said. Singh was accompanied by his former colleague constable Sadeeq and both of them fled the scene after the shooting, they said, adding multiple teams have been formed to arrest the accused who are on the run.
The officials said Singh has already been placed under suspension following the incident.
