Armed Reserve personnel threatens to commit suicide after repeated denial of leave

A Kancheepuram district Armed Reserve police constable’s bid to shoot himself, as he was constantly denied leave to visit his home town, was thwarted by his colleagues by timely intervention by the Superintendent of Police, Santosh Hadimani. He was then allowed to go on a week’s vacation.

The incident took place at the district police headquarters, on Thursday morning. Police sources said that Rajkumar from Coimbatore was posted as AR constable at the headquarters.

Though, he had been requesting for leave to visit his family at his hometown, for six months, he was constantly denied permission by the inspector citing various protests that were taking place in the district.

Rajkumar is said to have sought leave again on Tuesday which was sanctioned. However, when he went to the station to inform them about his leave on Thursday morning, he came to know that he had been assigned bandobast duty again.

When he met the inspector and told him about the leave approval, the latter was said to have cancelled the leave once again. Dejected over this, Rajkumar went to the station and loaded a rifle and

tried to shoot himself.

After attempts by fellow personnel to stop him went in vain. Santosh Hadimani was alerted and he rushed to the spot. He tried to convince Rajkumar but it was not an easy task for him too. Only after a reassuring conversation for over 20 minutes, the constable was persuaded out of his decision.

“I had to literally talk very soothingly to him. He was so depressed and stressed out. I treated him like a friend and only after a lengthy pep talk, he put down his rifle and broke down. He poured out his grievances and out came all his misery in torrents,” explained the official.

The SP granted Rajkumar one week leave and asked him to report for duty next Thursday, afresh. He even arranged a private car for Raj Kumar to be dropped home and offered to send his best friend, from the force, along with him to Coimbatore