Autopsy suggests Sharma died of ‘excessive bleeding’
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Teena ThackerPosted online: Sep 21, 2008 at 0017 hrs
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New Delhi, September 20 Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences
(AIIMS), who performed the autopsy on encounter specialist Mohan Chand Sharma,
did not find any bullet in his body and said he died due to “excessive internal
bleeding”.
“In these kinds of cases, an X-Ray is done before conducting the postmortem for
thoroughly screening the body. The X-Ray did not show any bullets inside his
body. No bullets were found even in the autopsy. The bullet could have
penetrated and then exited his body,” a senior AIIMS doctor said.
This, experts say, usually happens during close quarter shootings and when a
high-velocity firearm is used. “The wound suggests it was a near shot from a
rifled firearm. These have greater accuracy and stability,” another doctor
said.
Special Cell inspector and top encounter cop Mohan Chand Sharma was killed in
Friday’s encounter in Jamia Nagar, which lasted for over an hour. Two men, who
the police claim were behind the serial blasts in Delhi, Ahmedabad and
Hyderabad, were also killed.
The doctors said the wounds on Sharma’s body suggest he was hit by two bullets
— one in the stomach and the other on his arm. “The bullet usually exits if it
enters soft tissue, as in this case where it hit the stomach and arm. If the
bullet had hit a bone, it would have shattered,” the doctor added. “The cause
of death is shock due to loss of excessive blood,” the doctor said.
Forensic experts at AIIMS, however, have not yet handed over the postmortem
report to the police and have asked for the report of the doctor at Holy Family
who treated the inspector before he succumbed to his injuries. “While it is
quite difficult to take out bullets during surgery, to make sure before we
present our conclusions, we have asked for the surgical intervention report
from the police,” a doctor said.
Meanwhile, the bodies of the two terror suspects killed in the encounter are
lying at the AIIMS mortuary. The police are looking for claimants but experts
say if no one comes forward to claim the bodies, a postmortem can be carried
out in such cases after 72 hours.
--- On Tue, 23/9/08, Anivar Aravind <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: Anivar Aravind <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [GreenYouth] A Little Less Melodrama and a Lot More Forensics
To: "Satya Sivaraman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Greenyouth"
<[email protected]>, "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Tuesday, 23 September, 2008, 1:03 PM
A Little Less Melodrama and a Lot More Forensics
by Shuddhabrata Sengupta
On Looking at a Photograph taken on the Margins of an 'Encounter'
>From page 3, Sunday Hindustan Times, 21 September, 2008
Yesterday's Hindustan TImes published an interesting photograph of the late
Inspector Mohan Chand Sharma of the Special Cell of the Delhi Police, who was
killed, allegedly during the course of the recent 'encounter' at Jamia Nagar on
the morning of Friday, the 19th of September.
[ See 'Braveheart Falls', Page 3, Sunday Hindustan Times, 21 September, 2008 ]
< http://epaper.hindustantimes.com/ArticleImageEx.aspxarticle=21_09_2008_003_002_002&type=2&mode=1 >
The page is headlined 'The Hunt for Terror' and while the other photographs on
the page (of the deceased policeman's grieving relatives) are credited, this
particular one is not.
A number of disturbing questions about this 'encounter' are gradually beginning
to make themselves known. I do not wish to repeat or reiterate them in this
posting (though I feel that they need to be carefully thought about). I just
want to share my doubts about particular thing that I can't but help noticing
while looking at the photograph.
The photograph shows an injured Mohan Chand Sharma walking, helped by two men,
presumably towards a vehicle that would be taking him to hospital.
The man on his left is bulky, wears a black T Shirt with a red figure of 8 on
it. One of Sharma's arms is slung around his shoulder. The man on his right is
tall, balding, wears a blue patterned necktie and a white shirt (he is also
seen on the TV footage from Holy Family Hospital, where Sharma was taken). His
shirt appears stained with fresh blood on his left arm and in the chest area.
He wears a bag slung across his body.
Sharma seems to have lost one shoe, appears to be in some pain, and clearly
needs support as he walks. He is wearing an off white bush shirt, over a white
vest and has what looks like some strong blood stains on his right arm (just
below where the man on his right is holding him) and some faint stains, (which
could be small quantities of blood, or could be stains from having brushed
against a surface on which there is blood) on his right abdomen area.
Since he is not on a stretcher of any kind, he appears to be in a position
where it is plausible that he walked down the four floors from the site of the
encounter at L-18 and is seen continuing to walk. He is in pain, but his
injuries, at least in this photograph, do not appear to be life-threatening, at
least not as yet.
Crucially, there do not seem to be any visible signs of excessive blood loss.
In serious bullet injuries, especially when they have occurred at close range,
there is every chance of immediate and large scale blood loss. If he came down
the stairs as he must have, we would have seen a lot of blood on the stairs,
had there been a lot of bleeding. Having watched the video footage of the
staircase repeatedly and carefully on the day of the 'encounter' I clearly
recall that while the staircase was indeed 'spotted' with small patches, skid
marks and spots of what looked like blood, the amount of blood did not suggest
that a person who was bleeding heavily had walked down, (or even had been
carried down) four flights of stairs.
Reports of the autopsy conducted on Mohan Chand Sharma's body indicate that he
sustained two injuries - in his right arm and in his adbomen. [See Autopsy
Suggests Sharma died of 'excessive bleeding' by Teena Thacker, Indian Express,
Posted Online, September 21, 2008 at 0017 hours.]
But no bullets were found, either in X Ray or during the autopsy. Suggesting
that the bullets would have exited the body. This occurs when a high velocity
firearm is used at close range, such that the force of the impact tears right
through the body, causing the bullet to be ejected out of the body through an
'exit wound'. If there are exit wounds, they tend to be larger than entrance
wounds, and they are accompanied by profuse bleeding.
[For a discussion of how bullet injuries impact on soft tissue in human bodies
see How a high speed bullet damages an organ - from Gun Shot Wounds (CRC Press,
1985) by Dr. Vincent J.M. DiMaio, Chief Medical Examiner and Director of the
Regional Crime Laboratory, County of Vexar, San Antonio, Texas.]
Sharma died of excessive bleeding. The excessive bleeding seems not to have
begun at least till the time that this photograph was taken. The photograph in
the Hindustan Times is consistent with the possibility of an injured arm, and
the blood stains on his escorts shirt also seem to be in consonance with what
would happen if you were helping a person who has been injured on his arm (or
if the blood has sprayed on to your shirt at close range from another injured
person).
The ground which the three figures are walking on is clearly visible in the
photograph, again, here too, we do not see the kind of marks that should be
visible if a severely injured and bleeding person were to be walking.
If this is so, then some rather disturbing questions seem to begin to raise
their heads.
Was Sharma shot (at least one more time) after this photograph was taken, and
before he reached hospital? If so, who shot him?
The only people who can be said to be with him as he travelled from the site of
the encounter to the hospital were his other security personnel. There were no
armed 'terrorists' with him, around him, or facing him, at this time.
While Mohan Chand Sharma's career may have been illuminated by several
decorations, there is no doubt that not unlike his deceased mentor and
colleauge, Rajbir Singh, he had, of late come under a bit of a cloud. The
decision to transfer him out of the Special Cell of the Delhi Police to the
Police Training College at Jharoda Kalan (which has been interpreted as a
punishment posting by some) is well known. He was asked to stay on, or perhaps
himself asked to stay on, for this particular operation. It could have been a
last attempt at another touch of glory in a career that was beginning to lose
its shine.
We may do well to remember that Mohan Chand Sharma's erstwhile mentor and
colleague,the late Rajbir Singh, too died in somewhat mysterious
circumstances, apparently to do with his somewhat unsavoury sideline as an
extortionist and part of a real estate mafia racket (after having a
distinguished list of 'encounters' and 'investigations', including the 13
December case, to his name).
WIth Rajbir Singh's and now Mohan Chand Sharma's deaths, two more people who
possibly knew a lot about say, the 13 December case are no longer in the
reckoning, and with a steady chorus mounting for the execution of Afzal Guru,
the day may not be far when no footsoldier will be left alive to bear witness
to what exactly happened on and around the 13th of December, 2001 and several
other less than transparent episodes in the recent history of what passes as
'anti-terrorist operations'.
While today, Mohan Chand Sharma may be commemorated as a 'hero', as
'braveheart', as a 'martyr' a dispassionate look at his rise may actually
reveal different shades. The possibility, that for many people within the deep
structures of the security establishment, his 'neutralization' may not be an
altogether inconvenient thing, cannot be ruled out.
Incidentally, Mohan Chand Sharma's funeral was attended amongst others by
Sachin Vaze and Pradeep Sharma, both top encounter killings of the Mumbai
police, M.C. Sharma's friends, and both currently undergoing suspension, Vaze
because of a case of custodiald death involving him, and Pradeep Sharma,
because of suspected links to the Mumbai underworld. [See Tarnished Cops Seek
Meaning in Sharma's Death by Vikas Shrivastav and Vivek Sinha, Mumbai Mirror,
Posted on September 21, 2008.]
Mohan Chand Sharma may have died a violent death, and every violent death
(including possibly many of those that he may himself have authored in his
career) is tragic and must be mourned. However, much of what he did, or was
made to do, or became habituated to doing, and all that he represented, still
needs to be accounted for. His last few hours need accounting for. The 'Jamia
Encounter' and its link to the Delhi, Gujarat, Jaipur, Bangalore and Varanasi
bomb blasts doesn't quite look like the open and shut case it is being made out
to be on prime time television. By Sunday evening, a channel called India TV,
(famous for predicting apocalypse on a daily basis) ran a dramatized
'reconstruction' with the theme of a 13 headed monster terrorist cell, within
two days of Friday's events. Times Now, another channel, kept saying that they
had 'Exclusive' Photographs of the so called 'Terrorists' at the sites in which
they had planted the bombs. What they
showed us were black and white close ups of smiling young men. The photographs
did not in any way indicate 'where' these men happened to be located.
Perhaps we need a little less melodrama, and a lot more forensics. That could
help us understand what exactly happened at Jamia Nagar last Friday, and what
is actually going on in the name of the 'war on terror' in this country
today.Posted in Government, Images, Law, Violence/Conflict Tagged: Afzal
Guru, counter-terrorism, December 13, Delhi blasts, Delhi police, jamia
encounter, Mohan Chand Sharma, police, terrorism
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