A sailor with the Indian Navy was found dead on Thursday, June 1, under mysterious circumstances aboard the naval vessel INS Rana — a Rajput-class destroyer that was docked at the Visakhapatnam port of Andhra Pradesh. The sailor has been identified as one Vikash Yadav, who hails from Bhind in Madhya Pradesh.
Reports say Yadav was found dead aboard INS Rana — which was docked at its home port — with a bullet injury. The body of the 21-year-old sailor was rushed to the local naval hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. It has not been determined yet whether he was shot by someone else or he shot himself — either accidentally or intentionally.
"A Board of Inquiry is being constituted to investigate the incident," a Navy spokesman has been quoted by PTI as saying. He added: "Vikash, an electrical mechanic of power class 1, sustained a bullet injury while on duty as security sentry in the early hours today [Thursday]. He was immediately shifted to the navy hospital where he was declared brought dead."
The Indian Navy has seen a few unnatural deaths in recent times. In one such case, a cadet from Kerala had ended his life after blaming mental and physical harassment by his seniors in a suicide note. Gudeppa Sooraj, who had died at a naval hospital on May 18, hailed from the Tirur area of Malappuram in Kerala. His father was also a Naval officer.
Sooraj had joined Indian Navy as a sailor in 2009. He had then cleared the training examination for officers. However, the Indian Naval Academy (INA) at Ezhimala in Kerala had expelled him in 2015 on charges of cheating, following which he had approached a court. It was this court that had ordered that he be reinstated to the academy this year.
