A  po­lice con­sta­ble as­signed to the Jus­tice Pro­tec­tion Unit col­lapsed while at a train­ing ex­er­cise and lat­er died at the Cou­va Health Fa­cil­i­ty on Tues­day.

Guardian Me­dia was told that PC Shas­tri Ma­haraj, 39, was at firearm train­ing at a gun range in with his col­leagues when he com­plained of chest pains and had dif­fi­cul­ty breath­ing.

He col­lapsed and his col­leagues rushed him to the Cou­va Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty in an un­con­scious state for emer­gency med­ical treat­ment.

He died while un­der­go­ing treat­ment.

Sources de­scribed Ma­haraj, who was from Siparia, as a ded­i­cat­ed of­fi­cer who was loved and re­spect­ed by all. They said Ma­haraj was an of­fi­cer who would have nev­er passed any­one straight with­out shar­ing a kind word or two with them.

An au­top­sy has been or­dered to de­ter­mine the ac­tu­al cause of his death.