Shotgun shooting in northern India-a review (1980-1999)

Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Chandigarh undertakes the examination of the crime cases of some northern states of India. The shooting cases of last two decades (1980-1999) involving shotguns were analysed in this laboratory. This paper consists of the study of 360 actual cases of shotguns for evaluation of various parameters, such as type of firearm, number of firearm and firing, location of wound, age, occupation, sex and caste of accused and victim, etc. Out of 360 cases, 253 (70%) were classified as homicidal, 68 (19%) accidental, 11 (3%) suicidal, 9 (2.5%) hunting and 19 (5.5%) cases of insufficient information including the cases of illegal possession of firearm. Single Barrel Breech Loading (SBBL) gun 144 (40%) was preferred over Single Barrel Muzzle Loading (SBML) 109 (30.3%), Double Barrel Breech Loading (DBBL) 72 (20%) and Double Barrel Muzzle Loading (DBML) gun 35 (9.7%). All the breechloader guns were of 12 bore. Muzzleloader gun were recovered only from the remote rural areas. Three hundred and thirty-one (92%) cases involved single, 22 (6%) double and 7 (2%) more than two shotgun. Majority of cases were found of single firing 288 (80%), followed by double 29 (8%) and multi-firing 18 (5%). Eleven (3%) cases were of misfiring and in 14 (4%) cases information was not available. Accidental and suicidal cases had only one firing. The mean age for male and female victim was 31 and 24 years, respectively. Occupationally, agriculture is predominating over business, service and security guards for accused and for victim agriculture followed by service, business, student and security guards are in the descending order. Caste wise the most aggressive community of Kshatriyas is predominating as accused and victim over lower cast people. Head (64%) being a vital part was chosen most frequently for committing suicide followed by body (36%). Service personnel committed maximum number of suicide.