Three children found dead in forest: Siblings were shot near eyes and forehead, says autopsy report

Bodies of the three children being taken to Kurukshetra on Wednesday after post-mortem at the Panchkula civil hospital. (Express photo)

The three siblings from Kurukshetra, shot dead by their uncle and dumped in a forest near Tikkar Tal lake in Morni, were shot near the eyes and forehead, revealed the post-mortem report. All of them were shot from point-blank range. According to the doctors, the gun, apparently, was kept just a few inches from the head.

Eleven-year-old Sameer, eight-year-old Simran and four-year-old Samar were reported missing since Sunday morning from their native Sarsa village under Pehowa tehsil of Kurukshetra district in Haryana. Police recovered the bodies on Tuesday morning following a confession by their uncle Jagdeep Malik, who said he had killed the children at the behest of cousin Sonu Malik, the father of the children.

On Wednesday, the post-mortem report revealed that the trio were hit on the forehead and near the eyes. Chandigarh Newsline has seen the report. While Sameer’s post-mortem was conducted on Tuesday evening, that of Simran and Samar was done on Wednesday afternoon at the civil hospital in Panchkula.

Doctors and Haryana Police officials told Chandigarh Newsline that since the children were shot from close range, “the bullet burst the back side of the skull”. “I have never seen such cases where children were fired from this close range. This is horrific,” said an official from the civil hospital Panchkula, who was part of the post-mortem team.

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Sources said in Sameer’s case, the post-mortem found that “oval wound of 1 cm in length and .5 in width” and in Samar’s case, “a circular wound present on the forehead near the hairline, 3.5 cm above the middle of the right eyebrow”. Simran, according to the post-mortem report, “had an oval wound near the middle angle of the right eye… near the bridge of nose”.

Doctors at the Panchkula civil hospital Panchkula also maintained that no injury marks were found in the bodies and the cause of death in the three cases was “gunshot wounds in the head”.

On Wednesday afternoon, after the post-mortem, the bodies were handed over to the family. Before leaving the hospital, Jita Ram Malik, the grandfather of the slain children, told Chandigarh Newsline that if his son Sonu is found guilty, he should be “chopped into pieces and given to animals”.

“If he (Sonu) is the partner in crime, he deserves the highest punishment. I am saying that his body be chopped into pieces and then those pieces should be dropped for animals in the same area where he dumped the children,” said Jita Ram, adding that the same goes for Jagdeep. He said Sonu had survived an accident, two years ago. “But today, I feel he should have died then because these innocent children would have been alive today.”

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According to police officials, while Jagdeep has claimed that Sonu’s illicit relationship with a woman was the motive behind the killings, there was more to it. Police officials said they also suspect role of more family members. “Investigation has just started and we are questioning other family members as well…. There is high possibility that more people could be involved. The statement of the mother, Suman, and the father, Sonu, are not matching,” said a senior official.

Till Wednesday evening, Haryana Police officials said the father had not been arrested yet, but he was being questioned. “Jagdeep has told us that he executed the crime at Sonu’s behest. But, we are investigating all the angles in the case and we are trying to find out the real motive of the murder…there is more to the story to what we know so far,” said Dheeraj Singh, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Pehowa.