A police constable was arrested for attempting to shoot a fellow constable staying in the bachelors’ quarters at the Kahathuduwa Police Station yesterday (19).
A firearm and a live bullet that was in the possession of the suspect have been taken into Police custody. The suspect arrested over the incident is a new recruit.
The other Police constable who escaped from getting shot has been working as the night shift telephone operator on Monday (17) and on Tuesday (18) early morning around 5.40 am two people have arrived at the Police station to lodge a complaint. At that time the suspect, an amateur constable who was on duty as sub serviceman has been sleeping on his chair, according to Police Media.
Police investigations revealed that the other constable has tried to wake up the sleeping constable several times and when he did not wake up, he had hit the sleeping constable and poured water on him.
Later the telephone operator has informed the Sergeant in-charge of the night duty and has proceeded to write down the complaint of the two people and has also written a statement regarding the incident that took place with the sleeping constable in the Police book.
There has been an exchange of words and an argument between the suspect Police constable and the constable who was on duty as the telephone operator that night. It has been revealed that the suspect has kept in his possession a pistol that has been returned by a Sergeant who was on night petrol after his duty without putting it back to the firearms box and has then gone to the bachelors’ quarters where the other constable was staying where he has attempted to activate the firearm to shoot the constable while berating him.
Two other constables who were getting ready to leave for afternoon duty had snatched the firearm that was with him that prevented the shooting which saved the life of the other constable, Police said.
Varuna Dayaratne
