A BSF Head Constable shot himself dead in Kashmir’s Kupwara after learning about his wife’s suicide back home in Rajasthan.

Jaipur/Srinagar: A BSF soldier allegedly shot himself dead in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Wednesday upon receiving the tragic news of his wife’s death by purported suicide back home in Rajasthan after the couple had gotten into a heated argument while speaking on the phone.

According to the police, 28-year-old Rajendra Yadav, who served as a Head Constable in the Border Security Force (BSF) and was posted in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district, shot himself dead with his service revolver after learning that his wife, Anshu Yadav, 24, has died by suicide by hanging herself from a fan in her house in Dheerpur village of Rajasthan’s Kotputli-Behror district on Tuesday night.

The couple, who had been married for eight months, had quarreled over the phone on the fateful night which drove Anshu to take the extreme step, police said.

SHO of the Harsaura police station in Kotputli-Behror district, Rajesh Meena, said that the body of the woman was handed over to family members after postmortem.

It has come to light that there was a quarrel between them over the phone, Meena said, adding that it seems, the woman committed suicide after that.

He said that Rajendra Yadav’s body is likely to be brought to Jaipur on Thursday. Anshu Yadav and Rajendra Yadav got married eight months ago, the SHO said.

Police said a case has been registered under section 176 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (inquest proceedings) and the investigation has been handed over to the sub-divisional officer.

According to data revealed by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) lose more men to suicides than to incidents where they are killed in action with an average of 12 suicides per month.

As per the MHA data, the CAPFs lost 507 personnel to suicides from January 2020-July 2023. Among the CAPFs which includes, Assam Rifles (AR), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB)– the CRPF has reported the highest suicide rate with 335 suicides between 2015 and 2022.

(With PTI inputs)