Cop shoots at self inside police station

The pressures of a police job caught up with yet another policeman yesterday. A 44-year-old cop attached with the Chunabhatti police station in Kurla (East) allegedly tried to commit suicide by shooting himself with his service pistol inside the police station on Wednesday afternoon. He is in critical condition.

Taking the bullet: Staff at Chunabhatti police station where API Chandrakant Mahajan shot at himself with his service revolver. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

The police said that Assistant Police Inspector (API) Chandrakant Ghanshyam Mahajan had a fight with his wife last morning after which she left their house in Nehru Nagar police colony in Kurla to go to Nashik. The same afternoon, Mahajan was taken to task by DCP Lakmi Gautam of Zone VI over irregularities in his work.

The API shot at himself in his office around 3 pm on the third floor of the police station. He took aim at the right side of his neck and the bullet pierced upwards though his skull.

"Mahajan was recently given the responsibility of the anti-terrorist cell which keeps tab on terror-related cases at the police station," said Quaiser Khalid, additional commissioner of police, eastern region.

"He was rushed to Surana Hospital on Chembur-Trombay road. He was operated and is in a critical condition," said Milind Bhise, assistant commissioner of police, Chembur division.

"It was the job of the DCP to keep a tab on his juniors' work and guide them. The DCP had a meeting with Mahajan around 11 am," said Khalid.

Mahajan has two children and hails from Nashik.

Cop suicides
>> Earlier, ACP Baburao Gaikwad had committed suicide in his Dahisar office with his service pistol.
>> Tejas Sawant, son of Senior police Inspector Arvind Sawant of Mumbai Crime Branch, had committed suicide at his house in Tilak Nagar with his father's pistol.
>> Nandlal Sonawane, a Force One commando killed himself inside the Vakola headquarters of the force, with his pistol.u00a0