21yearold sailor commits ‘suicide’ on board ship in Visakhapatnam

A 21-year-old sailor allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself with his service revolver on board the naval vessel INS Rana early on Thursday, the Navy said.

The sailor, Vikash Yadav, was doing security sentry duty at the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam.

A Navy spokesman said Yadav, a native of Bhind area in Madhya Pradesh, was an electrical mechanical power class-1 employee in the warship and allegedly shot himself around 5am on the vessel stationed at the naval dockyard.

“His family and local police have been informed of this unfortunate incident. A board of inquiry is being ordered to investigate into the incident. The 21-year old sailor is unmarried, a spokesman from the Indian Navy said.

Fellow sailors, who heard the gunshots, rushed to the spot and immediately shifted him to local naval hospital INHS Kalyani, where the doctors declared him dead.

The Malkapuram police registered a case and investigation is on to ascertain the reasons behind the alleged suicide by the sailor. This is the second instance of Navy personnel committing suicide this year.

In January, a Navy cadet accused his trainers and superiors of mentally and physically harassing him in a note before he purportedly jumped off a building at the Ezhimala Naval Academy in Kerala.