Uttar Pradesh, April 10 -- He returned home on leave, not for rest, but to seek justice in his cousin's murder case. But fate had other plans for Vikrant Gurjar, a jawan of the Indian Army.

Little did Vikrant know that he would fall to bullets, not on the battlefield, but in his own village in Saharanpur in western Uttar Pradesh. Vikrant was allegedly shot dead by unknown assailants, police said on Thursday, April 10.

Twenty-seven-year-old Vikrant lived in Mudikhedi village of Saharanpur - about 200 kilometres from the national capital. He was posted in Indian Army in Jammu and Kashmir - miles away from his home.

Vikrant came home on Tuesday, April 8, on a four-day leave to testify in a murder case, officials were quoted as saying in a...