According to the police, the girl died on Monday during treatment at a hospital in Lucknow.
A DAY after a police sub-inspector claimed to the police that his 16-year-old daughter died after she shot herself with his service pistol at their residence in Lucknow Monday, the autopsy report received late Tuesday evening ruled out gunshot injury as cause of death and said multiple injuries, including head injury, caused the death.
On the basis of the autopsy report, the police registered a murder case. While the FIR has not named anyone, it has mentioned that prima-facie it appears that the girl was murdered by her “family member”, who are now the “key suspects”.
The girl’s father is posted in the security detail of a Central minister’s Lucknow residence.
According to the police, the girl died on Monday during treatment at a hospital in Lucknow.
The parents had claimed to the police that she shot herself because she was scolded over her studies and preparations for the board exams. They also claimed that they heard a gunshot noise from her room and when her mother went to check, she saw her lying in a pool of blood and the pistol lying nearby.
Around 1:30 pm Monday, we received information from a hospital that a girl was admitted there and had died during treatment. Her family members told us that she committed suicide by shooting herself with her father’s service pistol at their house. A police officer and a forensic team team went to the spot,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Sarvshreshtha Tripathi.
“Some live cartridges, an empty cartridges and the pistol were found. There was also a bullet mark on the wall of the room. On Tuesday, the postmortem report mentioned that there were two lacerated wounds on the head and four contusions on the legs and the arms. After this, a fresh investigation was launched and an FIR was registered. Based on physical, circumstantial and scientific evidence, we will take the investigation further. The postmortem report has not mentioned anything about a bullet injury,” added Tripathi.
According to senior police officers, the postmortem report has confirmed ante-mortem injuries on the head, appeared to be inflicted by a heavy object, as the cause of death. The report has also ruled out the possibility that the wounds were caused by the girl herself.
The Station House Officer of the local police station, who is also the investigating officer in the murder case, told The Indian Express, “There were only three persons in the house at the time of the death — the girl and her parents. It clearly appears to be a case of murder but a probe is on.” He added that arrests in the case would be made only after “thorough investigation and collection of evidence.”