Kishenji shot six times: Autopsy

Slain top Maoist leader Kishenji was shot six times and had received two splinter wounds during the fatal encounter with security forces in West Midnapore district, according to autopsy reports.

Slain top Maoist leader Kishenji was shot six times and had received two splinter wounds during the the fatal encounter with security forces in West Midnapore district, according to autopsy reports.

The bullets hit him in the chin, head, chest and other parts of the body, doctors, who conducted the autopsy, said. One of the shots appeared to have been fired from long-range of around 500 m, they added.

A team of forensic experts have also found some gunpowder leftover on his hand which indicates that he was using firearms to defend himself during the encounter at Burisole jungle on Thursday.

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Kishenji's body was identified by his niece Deepa Rao at Midnapore Medical College and Hospital morgue after which it was sent by an ambulance to Kolkata prior to being flown to his home in Andhra Pradesh on Saturday.

Telegu poet and Maoist sympathiser Varvara Rao has claimed that Kishenji was killed in a fake encounter. The West Bengal government has entrusted the CID to investigate the killing, official sources said.