Mauj Garh (Abohar), January 18
The Abohar police today took into custody the firearm, a .32 bore colt, that is claimed to have accidentally killed Surinder Jakhar here yesterday afternoon. But even as condolences poured in and the IFFCO ( Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited) chairman and son of former Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar was cremated, investigators continue to be baffled by the circumstances around the ‘accidental’ death.

While the post-mortem report has not yet been made public, reliable sources maintain that the single bullet that proved to be fatal, was shot from a point-blank range. The panel of doctors comprising Dr Lal Chand, Dr Yadisther and Dr Amita Chaudhary, which conducted the examination are learnt to have found that the bullet had entered from the left side of the skull and exited from the right.

In the absence of any suspicion of foul play and any complaint from family members, both police and the doctors who conducted the post-mortem have veered round to the view that that it was ‘death by accident’, although a section of the police, on condition of anonymity, claim suicide to be a more probable cause of death.

While a case under section 174 of Cr.P.C has been registered at the Khuian Sarwar police station, the Ferozepur SSP, Kaustabh Sharma, said on Tuesday that nothing can be ruled out at the moment. The firearm and the empty shell, he said, would be sent for forensic examination and ascertain whether it was used to fire the bullet.

“How the bullet hit the deceased’s head needs to be checked; the distance from which it was fired, the angles of the bullet’s entry and exit and all other aspects will have to be examined before arriving at a conclusion,” said the Abohar SP Varinder Singh Brar.

Significantly the body of the deceased was spotted by a group of women working at a small chocolate making factory owned by the family and adjacent to the farmhouse where the elder brother of the deceased continues to live. The workers and the manager did not hear any gun shot though and failed to identify the body. They informed the village sarpanch and the police.

Neither the deceased’s driver nor the distant nephew who took the body to the hospital, were present when the ‘accident’ took place.

It is still not clear who saw him cleaning the firearm. What also remains baffling is why anyone would clean his firearm in the afternoon and that too outside a factory and farmhouse, 13 kilometres away from his home in Panj Kosi village.