Rahul Raj

Mumbai/Patna, Nov. 6: A doctor at JJ Hospital today said the post-mortem report suggested bus hijacker Rahul Raj may have been shot from close range, but the dean later claimed his subordinate had retracted the statement.

The doctor was part of a four-member team at the hospital that conducted the autopsy on the 25-year-old job-hunter from Patna who tried to hijack a BEST bus at gunpoint on October 27 and was shot dead by Mumbai police.

“We found gunpowder marks near one of the bullet wounds in the head. After the firing, the gunpowder gets stuck on the skin inside. If there is tattooing around the entry wound, it indicates he may have been shot from close range but it cannot be said how close,” Dr B.G. Chikhalkar, associate professor of forensic medicine at JJ Hospital, said this morning.

Ballistic experts said “close range” can be defined as a target within 4 to 6 feet of the muzzle of a gun, while point-blank range is usually within 3 feet.

Chikhalkar did not say if the bullet had been fired from point-blank range.

The police had fired 13 rounds at Raj, who wielded a country-made pistol and had shot at one passenger on the upper deck. Five bullets hit Raj, in his head and chest.

But hours after the doctor’s statement, which triggered another wave of criticism from Raj’s family in Patna, JJ Hospital dean Dr B.M. Sabnis claimed that Chikhalkar had retracted it. However, no written statement was forthcoming from Mumbai’s largest public hospital.

Neither Sabnis nor Chikhalkar was available for comment.

Mumbai police, who have been evasive about details of how Raj was gunned down, swiftly denied that the post-mortem had revealed any such finding.

“We received the post-mortem report today in which there is no mention of blackening of skin around bullet entry wounds,” Mumbai joint commissioner (crime) Rakesh Maria said.

Maria said the skin around the five bullet wounds would be sent to the central forensic laboratory at Kalina for tests, which would determine the approximate distance from which the bullets were fired.

Raj’s father Kundan Prasad Singh, who has alleged that his son’s death was a “cold-blooded murder”, scoffed at the police defence.

“We are sure Mumbai police will not do justice. How can the killers carry out an investigation against themselves? I will knock at the door of President Pratibha Patil for justice,” Singh said in Patna.