WOMAN KILLED AS RIFLE GOES OFF

LUCKNOW: In a freak incident, a 16-year-old girl accidentally killed her mother when a security guard’s rifle she was playing with went off in Shiv Nagar area, Madiaon, on Friday night. The girl was playing with the gun of security guard Alok Yadav who lives in the same house as a tenant. The deceased, identified as Sadhana Shukla,45, was talking to Alok as her daughters -- Deepali Shukla and Shikha Shukla -- were playing in the house when the mishap occurred. Sadhana’s husband Anuj Shukla is a driver working with a private organisation. “Sadhana’s younger daughter Shikha picked up the rifle and started acting as a cop. While she was playing with the gun, it went off accidentally. The bullet hit her mother who died on the spot,” Santosh Kumar Singh, inspector, Madiaon police station, said. He added that the girl also fainted after seeing her mother dead. Neighbours who converged on the spot said the security guard was at fault as he did not lock his gun.