Jamshedpur, Aug. 17: The court of chief judicial magistrate A.K. Chaturvedi today asked the investigating officer of the Kalimati Road firing case to produce the injury report of the victims along with other related evidence on August 22.

The court was hearing the bail application filed by Nirbhay Singh, one of the accused in the August 12 incident at Sakchi.

Three persons, including 12-year-old Vikas Kumar, were killed during an exchange of fire between supporters of the former district president of the BJP, Abhay Singh, and civil contractor K.K. Singh.

Eyewitnesses had claimed there were at least 35 rounds of firing, which also injured a snack vendor and an auto-rickshaw driver.

Police arrested four persons, including Nirbhay, and Dinesh Singh on the one hand and Vikash Singh and his cousin Chotan Singh on the other, following the incident.

Arguing for Nirbhay, the brother of the former district BJP chief, counsel Tapas Kumar Mitra said: ?The plot of land where the clash took place has been in the possession of Nirbhay?s family since 1970 and according to the law of the land, every individual has the right to protect his life and property.?

?Three innocent people lost their lives in the firing by K.K. Singh?s supporters while not a single person was injured from the other side,? he contended, adding that those on his client?s side had acted in self-defence after K.K. Singh?s supporters attacked them.

The advocate pointed out that Nirbhay was apprehensive of the activities of supporters of K.K. Singh and had even approached the authorities regarding the same.

?Nirbhay himself gave a written application to the officer-in-charge of Sakchi police station an hour before the firing. This shows that my client did not want to harm anyone and was not in favour of a clash,? Mitra told the court

The counsel argued that since the firearms recovered by the police from the residence of Nirbhay were licensed, the case under the Arms Act was not maintainable.

The shootout, feel some sources, could be the outcome of a rivalry between two factions of the BJP.