Kochi: A day after an engineering graduate was killed inside Thattekkad forest, the police and forest officials on Friday tried to ascertain if the youth Tony Jose was killed after being accidentally hit by a bullet fired from his country-made firearm or was shot to death by someone from the gang.
The post-mortem conducted on the body of Jose, 26, a resident of Thattekkad, at Alappuzha Medical College revealed that he had bled to death following a wound inflicted on his left thigh by the bullet fired from a country-made rifle.
Based on information given by two members of the gang who are now absconding, to local people, forest officials had said that the four-member gang was attacked by a wild tusker first.
In the melee, the country-made firearm carried by Jose accidentally went off and the bullet hit his leg which made him immobile while others escaped the scene, resulting in Jose’s death.
“We are yet to reach any conclusion on the exact cause of death. We did not get the post-mortem report. Our priority now is to trace the two missing members of the group and find out who owned the revolver and who fired it. We have registered a case for unnatural death. But other sections would be invoked as per new findings,” said P. Jansheed, Kuttampuzha sub inspector.
A senior forest official said that they are also holding a parallel investigation to unravel the truth. “As per our knowledge the group had one muzzle-loading gun, which is prone to go off very easily,” he said, adding a joint investigation with police is planned to track Shajith Joseph and Aneesh, who reportedly had a narrow escape in the incident and are absconding. However, it is not clear who held it and due to whose mistake the gun went off."
The forest department officials on Friday took the statement of Basil Thankachan, 30, of Thattekkad, another member of the group, who is admitted to a private hospital in Aluva with serious injuries. He is learnt to have repeated the old story that first the elephant turned violent and then the firearm went off from Jose hitting his leg.
