Rohtak, September 8
The postmortem examination of Raj Rani, the woman guest teacher who was killed in yesterday’s firing, has belied the claims of the local police and administrative authorities that she had not been shot by the police. The postmortem report revealed that she had died due to shock and haemorrhage caused as a result of firearm (bullet) injury.
As many as four plastic-rubber bullets were also recovered from the abdominal cavity of the woman’s body, which strongly indicates that she had been fired at by the police.
The plastic-rubber bullets are used by the police force to disperse a mob and are fired from a special weapon included under the category of teargas equipment. Hence, contrary to the claims of the local administration and police authorities, it is not practically possible that the bullets were fired by “somebody from the crowd”.
The bullets - which are made of plastic and rubber and are not pointed like the lead bullets - penetrated into the teacher’s body. This very fact indicates that the bullets had been fired from a very close range, which is not the done thing.
As the purpose of using these bullets is just to disperse the crowd and not to injure or kill anybody, these are fired from a distance. But in the give case, the bullets were fired from a close distance, which proved fatal for the woman.
In the given circumstances, the possibility of some other more powerful weapon having been used to fire these bullets can also not be ruled out.
The postmortem report further states that a lot of blood (nearly 2.5 litre) had been lost from the woman’s body, which can be a major factor leading to her death.
According to the Press photographers present at the site of protest, the police personnel deployed there had not allowed anybody to go near the woman after she was injured and fell down for long. Had she been taken to hospital promptly, her life could have been saved.
Deputy commissioner R.S. Doon said the bullets recovered from the woman’s body were being sent to the forensic science laboratory in Madhuban and a final conclusion could be reached only after their report was received.
IGP of the Rohtak range V. Kamaraja said due legal action would be taken in this regard, adding that any policeman found guilty of misconduct would not be spared.
