Army man sustains bullet injury while clicking selfie

Nagpur: An Army man, identified as Manu Thomas, sustained a bullet injury under the left knee after a service revolver of a fellow passenger, a Special Protection Group (SPG) personnel, went off while they were taking selfie in the air-conditioned coach of Bilaspur-Hazrat Nizamuddin Express on Thursday. The incident took place at about 10pm when the train had reached Pandhurna in Madhya Pradesh.
The Government Railway Police, Amla, Madhya Pradesh, registered an offence against Rajesh Mohan, senior security assistant at SPG, for causing grievous injury to Thomas after a bullet got accidentally fired from his 9mm Glock Pistol. Mohan, who was de-boarded from the train, was later released on bail.

Thomas, a volleyball player from Kerala, had joined Army through sports quota. He was undergoing training at Kamptee Army cantonment. Thomas, part of a group of around 25, was headed to Delhi for participating in a training module. Thomas and his colleagues befriended the SPG employees, who had boarded the train at Bilaspur for Delhi.

Sources from Railway Protection Force (RPF), Central Railway, said Thomas and Mohan became close as they both belong to Kerala. As Mohan was showing his service firearm, they decided to click a selfie but the pistol accidentally got loaded. A bullet was fired and hit Thomas under his left knee roll.

The injured jawan was rushed to an Air Force hospital at Amla and discharged after preliminary treatment. Thomas and Mohan have both furnished in writing that they have nothing to complain against each other.