A police station head who was shot at and critically injured by his junior colleague on Saturday night, died of his bullet injuries here in the early hours of Sunday, officials said.Vilas Joshi (53), the senior inspector of Vakola police station in Santacruz East suburb of Mumbai, was fired upon by Assistant Sub-Inspector Dilip Shirke (55) with his service revolver, following a brawl over absenteeism.The last rites of Joshi, who received three bullet injuries in the back and abdomen, were performed on Sunday afternoon in a south Mumbai crematorium in the presence of a large number of police personnel.Shirke also fired at Joshi's orderly Babasaheb Aher in the thigh, but he is now out of danger.
Before other policemen could react, Shirke turned the gun on himself and shot two bullets. He was pronounced dead before he could be admitted to a hospital.Joshi was rushed to the Lilavati Hospital in Bandra late on Saturday night with bullet injuries in the abdomen, knee and hand.But he died early on Sunday, police spokesperson Deputy Commissioner of Police Dhananjay Kulkarni told IANS.The sensational shooting, which has left the police force shaken, occurred around 8.45 p.m. on Saturday.Described as a short-tempered person by his colleagues, Shirke lived in the Santacruz Police Colony and is survived by his wife and two children.
Commissioner of Police Rakesh Maria, Additional Commissioner of Police K.M.M. Prasanna and other top officials are directing the Crime Branch investigation into the case.Maria briefed Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who holds the home portfolio, on the incident and related issues including whether the ASI was under stress at work.He said that when Shirke reported for duty on Saturday evening, he saw that he was marked absent for the previous day in the station diary."The night police inspector had marked him absent as during the rounds at 2.30 a.m. and 6.30 a.m., he was not seen in the place assigned to him," Maria said.
After a heated argument with Joshi, Shirke resorted to the extreme step.Fadnavis said the ASI was sanctioned leave in January for several days and in March, he was absent for two days."Very recently, he was absent for seven days. However, for that post-facto sanction of paid leave was granted," Fadnavis said.He said the police commissioner informed him that special camps to make policemen stress-free were being regularly conducted and, if needed, their frequency would be increased.Earlier, Maria said the provocation was believed to be Joshi's anger at Shirke's absence from work on Friday for night duty and the subsequent three diary entries made against him.
When Shirke arrived at the police station and saw the diary entries, he turned furious and accused the night officer in-charge as well as some seniors of harassing him.Around 8.45 p.m., Shirke complained to Joshi about the matter. But Joshi justified the diary entries against him.A heated argument ensued between the two, and in a fit of rage, Shirke took out his service revolver and pumped three bullets into Joshi, and another into orderly Aher.This incident, coming close on the heels of two recent incidents of a policeman being arrested in a multi-crore-rupee drug scandal along with his mistress and two inspectors allegedly raping an upcoming model inside a police station, has severely dented the image of the Mumbai force.