According to ballistic experts, the bullet may have ricocheted from some hard surface after being fired, mostly from within the premise.
The bullet allegedly fired at the Art Of Living (AOL) ashram in Kanakapura on Sunday was neither an act of terror nor an assassination attempt. It is not also likely to be a result of rivalry between ashram inmates.
This is what has emerged from investigations so far, which means both home minister P Chidambaram and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s theories have fallen flat. But Unfortunately, this also means that the investigators have not been able to pinpoint who had fired the bullet, why, and from where.
According to ballistic experts, the bullet may have ricocheted from some hard surface after being fired, mostly from within the premise. Investigators are also considering a possibility where the bullet may have been fired unintentionally.
More likely that the weapon went off by itself injuring Vinay Kollumath, a devotee, who was standing 50 metres away from where Sri Sri Ravi Shankar was getting into his car.
Based on the ashram inmates’ versions, police said the sound of firing came from 700 feet away, from near the steps of the Vishalakshi Mantap where the satsang had got over five minutes ago.
Ballistic experts say the shot might have been fired from a neighbouring farmhouse.
Ramanagaram district police said some farm land owners living in the ashram’s neighbourhood have licenced fire weapons, and the bullet might have strayed into the ashram premises when someone fired at birds or at intruding wild animals.
“But it is impossible to fire towards the ashram at shoulder level from there. The periphery walls (of the ashram) are so high that the bullet cannot travel into the ashram to graze Vinay Kollumath’s thigh,” an investigating officer says.
Interestingly, no police doctor, ballistic expert or forensic expert has yet studied the nature of Vinay Kollumath’s bullet wound on the thigh.
But ballistic experts are investigating the trajectory of the bullet and are relying on the ricochet theory — based on the direction of a bullet takes after it hits a hard surface like rock at an angle.
“We will have to find the nature of the wound sustained by Vinay Kollumath to know the distance and direction from where the shot was fired. But one thing is sure that the bullet was of .32 calibre and it might have changed direction after hitting a hard surface,” an expert said.
“We have to reconstruct the entire incident to find the trajectory of the bullet. And after examining Kollumath’s wound, we will have a clearer picture about where the bullet was fired from,” an investigating officer said.
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