Bolangir: A forest guard was shot dead late Friday night by some unidentified miscreants while the personnel was patrolling at Rengalibahal under Saintala police limits in the district.
According to Saintala police station sources, the deceased guard was identified as Jatia Rana. He was on duty at night along with one of his colleagues, when Rana saw that some armed miscreants were venturing into the forest where he had been patrolling.
Swinging into action, Rana chased the miscreants suspecting them either to be wildlife hunters or wood mafias, in a bid to nab red-handed. All of a sudden, the armed miscreants opened fire at the two forest personnel who had been patrolling. However, Rana sustained grievous bullet injuries in his stomach in the incident.
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On being informed by the other guard, senior forest officials reached the spot and rescued Rana from a pool of blood. The injured forest guard was immediately rushed to nearby community health centre (CHC) at Saintala where doctors declared him ‘brought dead’.
“The assailants fled from the spot soon after committing the crime. Two to three miscreants armed with country-made guns were heading towards the forest, our guards tried to nab them. They suddenly fired leaving Rana critically injured. He succumbed to injuries on his way to the hospital,” Saintala ranger Rajkishore Harpal expressed.
Saintala police has registered a case in this connection and launched a probe. Police have initiated a manhunt to nab the assailants.
PNN