Rahul Raj was not shot from close range: report

Mumbai, Nov 22 (PTI) Rahul Raj, the youth who was
killed in a shootout aboard a BEST bus, was not shot from
close range but from at least four metres away, the forensic
science report has said.

"The report was submitted to the city police
yesterday. Its findings state that the bullets were fired at
Raj from beyond four metres," sources quoting the report said
Saturday.

The bullets were not fired at from point blank range
and could be classified as a long distance firing, the sources
said.

Earlier, a doctor, who was involved in Raj's autopsy,
had said one of the bullets that hit him may have been fired
at from a close range.

Raj, a resident of Patna, was killed in a shootout
with the police after he held a bus with 12 passengers hostage
in suburban Kurla on October 27. The killing sparked a furore
with several parties demanding a judicial probe into the
incident.

The doctor had said that some blackening found around
a bullet wound could indicate that bullets were fired at him
from a close range.

The doctor subsequently retracted his statement and
police said there was no such report of blackening in the
post-mortem report.

"Samples of skin from around the bullet wounds were
sent to the Kalina Forensic Science Laboratory in order to
assess the distance from which the bullets were fired," the
sources said.

Following the examination of these samples, conclusion
was reached that the bullets were fired from a long distance,
they said.

Maharashtra Chief Secretary and Crime Branch of the city
police are conducting independent inquiries into the incident,
which had created a furore with Bihar politicians strongly
condemning the police action.

They had contended that Raj could have been captured
by the police instead of being shot dead. Maharashtra
Government had defended the encounter.

The incident had taken place in the backdrop of violent
agitation against north Indian migrants by Raj Thackeray-led
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. PTI AG