A Chhattisgarh Armed Force jawan committed suicide by allegedly shooting himself with his service weapon in Dantewada district on Saturday. Police said that the jawan shot himself during the house duty of the Congress MLA. A senior police officer said that head constable Asharam Kashyap (44) shot himself with his service AK-47 rifle at the residence of MLA Devati Karma at around 1 am.

He said that Kashyap fired a round with a weapon on his chest and died on the spot. He said that Kashyap's colleagues informed the police after the incident, after which his body was taken to the district hospital for postmortem.

A native of neighboring Bastar district, Kashyap joined the police force in 2003, and was posted on the security duty of Devati Karma, an MLA from Dantewada assembly constituency. The Chhattisgarh Armed Forces is a wing of the state police. Senior said that no suicide note has been recovered from the scene and further investigation is on. Efforts are being made to find out why  Asharam Kashyap took such a step.