Who pulled trigger? Army officials questioned

CHENNAI: The CB-CID on Tuesday began questioning military personnel and civilians on the shooting down of 13-year-old K Dilshan at the Army Cantonment here on July 3. However, identification of the assailant may not be easy as the key witness may not have actually seen the perpetrator of the crime.ADGP, CB-CID, R Sekar told Express that a list of Army personnel in the vicinity of the crime scene had been prepared and the probe agency was going through them with a fine-toothed comb. DIG C Sridhar added that personnel of all ranks - from Subedar to Brigadier - were being interrogated. Besides, residents of Indira Nagar, S M Nagar and nearby areas were being questioned.The bullet - which entered Dilshan’s head over the right ear and exited through the left - had been sent for ballistic tests to ascertain the type of weapon and the caliber. A special police team was also looking into whether any weapon had been removed from the armoury.According to a senior police official, who conducted the preliminary investigation, military men in the rank of Lt Colonel and above stayed in the 28 residential flats at the Officers’ Enclave on Flagstaff Road. The jawans lived behind the officers’ quarters. “A Lt Colonel, who heard the shot, claimed he was asleep and thought it was either a tyre burst or a shortcircuit in the transformer,” he said.  On one count, the police appear to be satisfied: the Army’s claim that there were no armed guards on the premises. Inquiries revealed that security for the residential quarters had been outsourced to a private agency consisting of ex-servicemen too. Hence, there was only one private guard at the enclave gate, the official said.Also, the speculation surrounding a black car from which the killer allegedly emerged and shot at the boy also seems to have been put to rest. “The vehicle appeared half an hour before the incident…it slowed down, the occupant shooed the boys and drove away,” he said.  Meanwhile, it has emerged that 12-year-old Sanjay, who was the key witness to the shooting incident involving his friend, might not have actually seen the assailant.  Tracing the events on the fateful afternoon, the officer said Dilshan scaled the compound wall and jumped into the premises, while Sanjay stood on the structure, clutching the metal railing. From the vantage position, he was pointing out the almond kernels on the ground to his friend, who was picking them up. Praveen (10) was waiting on the platform outside the wall, the officer said.All of a sudden, there was a loud bang and Sanjay saw his friend falling down with a scream. He immediately jumped outside in such fright that he defecated in his pant. He did not see the killer, while Praveen, another friend, was too short to have seen what happened inside, he claimed.  Dilshan’s parents and their neighbours scaled the wall and brought out the bleeding boy through the same way. They took him in an autorickshaw to GGH, where the boy died at 5.20 pm.  On Tuesday, the bullet’s victim’s mother Kalaivani threatened that the entire family would resort to self-immolation if the culprit was not nabbed soon. For their part, the Army claimed that the authorities in Chennai were providing full assistance to the CB-CID in conducting the probe. “No guilty will be shielded,” the GOC, Chennai Area, said.