IMPHAL, December 30: Pebam John Singh, who was serving as a Reserved Inspector of Imphal East Police Station at the time of July 8 incident when class XI student Robinhood was killed during a student rally today deposed before the commission of inquiry constituted to probe the death of the student.
John is the seventh police officer to depose before the commission out of the 13 affidavits submitted by the police to the commission.
He also maintained the account of his senior officers who had deposed before the commission earlier.
During the cross examination by the counsel for Robinhood’s family, he disclosed that the effective range of the shell which they (police) had used on July 8, 2015 would be about 100 meters. The effective range of tear gas shell depends on different types of shell, he said.
During the cross examination by the counsel of the commission, he said he did not see whether lethal weapons were used/fired other than tear gas shell on that day from the side of the police personnel towards the student protesters.
He also admitted that “even though I am not a ballistic expert, it may be possible, in certain circumstances if a tear gas shell/smoke bomb fired from an anti-riot gun within effective range hit directly on the vital part of the human body, can be fatal.”