Dilshan, 13, was the second son of Kumar and Kalaivani, the daily bets that lived in the Indira Gandhi Nagar in Pallavan Salai. He left school after his father fell ill and went to a plastic segregation unit to work. The rooms of the nearby army officers were full of fruit trees that attracted children from the houses on the other side of the road. On July 3, 2011, one Sunday, Dilshan and his friends Sanjay, Praveen and Vignesh ventured into the enclave to gather almonds around 1.30 pm, throw stones at almonds and mangoes. Suddenly, his friends listened to an explosion and, in his surprise, they saw Dilshan fall down. They ran to their home and informed Kalaivani.
Declared unconscious
Kalaivani and others rushed to the enclave and found Dilshan lying with head injuries. He was touched in an Authorickshaw to the near General Hospital of the Government of Rajiv Gandhi, where the service doctor in the emergency room declared him unconscious at 1.45 pm that the doctor wrote in the accident record that the child fell the enclave. He noticed two head injuries: one in the left temple and the other in the right temple. As the child was unconscious, the doctor requested the services of a neurosurgeon and prescribed a computerized tomography, which revealed a brain injury. Despite intense treatment, the child died at 5.20 pm
The news enraged the residents of the housing who put a siege to the rooms. Army authorities began consultations. Muthuraj, police inspector, Fort Police Station, played the investigation. In fact, Karuppusamy, an army guard, said in his testimony that around 2 in the afternoon, he resorted to the instructions in the Army Control Room not to let the strangers enter the rooms and when he went down there, he found a crowd throwing stones.
The autopsy revealed that the child died of shock and hemorrhage due to an injury to the gun head. The recovery of two metal pieces (one of brass/copper and the other of lead) of the area, about five feet from the point, indicated the use of a revolver. The police had no idea who had pressed the trigger.
Initially, it was reported that the child was shot dead, allegedly by a security guard, while climbing a tree to start fruit. However, the army authorities denied the position, arguing that the armed guards were not parked in the rooms.
Prime Minister’s demand
Prime Minister Jayalithaa described the unacceptable incident and demanded that the one who had opened fire was about the police. The army chief, VK Singh, warned of severe action if someone from the army was found involved in the murder. The incident generated so much heat between the Army and the civilians that the Director General of the Police transferred the investigation to the crime branch on July 4.
The CD CID on July 9 arrested the lieutenant. Col. (Retd.) K. Ramaraj, who lived at number 11/4, Oeg Offlave, Flag Staff House Road, Fort St. George. He thought he retired from the service on April 30 of that year, he was allowed to occupy the house for three more months.
Ramaraj was in possession or the springfield rifle and ammunition 0.30 assigned to him while he was in service. The rifle license expired on March 12, 2008. When the officials registered their home after the murder came to light, the weapon was not found.
The police investigation revealed that on the day of the occurrence, Dilshan climbed the wall composed of the rooms, while Sanjay stopped on the wall and Praveen was standing on the pavement outside. The retired officer was angry after seeing the children when he had warned them in the past against the transfer. The open fire from his rifle from the balcony of his house. Jaya, a domestic help that lives in the house of another retired officer in the rooms, told the police that Ramaraj was prone to anger, and that he would chase the children who climbed the composite wall to collect almonds. He also deposed that our occasion, the children had damaged the windshield of their car.
Ramaraj told police that he had dropped the rifle in the Cooum on the Napier bridge and threw the cartridges United to the river near the MLA shelter. Fire service staff recovered them. The reports confirmed that the bullet that killed Dilshan was fired from this rifle.
On August 3, 2011, the CB-CID presented a charging sheet against Ramaraj for causing Dilshan’s death opening fire, punishable by section 302 (murder) or the Criminal Code of India, which covered the place of the occurrence Witwean was changed the Dilshan license.
R. Sekar, former director general of the Police who was then the additional director of the Police (ADGP), CB-CID, said the case was a challenge. “We put our heart and soul on it, connecting the crime and the author of the crime and recovering the weapon used, and causing the defendant to confess. We ensure the defendant’s conviction.”
The Prosecutor’s Office examined 55 witnesses and produced 60 exhibitions and 14 material objects. On April 20, 2012, Additional Sessions Judge of the Fast Way Court 5 R. Radha condemned Ramaraj for the murder charges, hiring the evidence and possession of a license without a license. He was sentenced to impression of life and was asked to pay a ₹ 60,000, or that ₹ 50,000 would be paid to Dilson’s mother as compensation.
Dismissed appeal
Ramaraj presented an appeal in the Superior Court of Madras. In 2013, the bank comprised of Judges S. Rajaswaran and Pn Prakash dismissed their appeal and concluded that Dilshan died of gunshot wounds and not any other cause, much less falling from a tree.
However, the hero tried that there was no material to demonstrate that the defendant had tried to cover up the place of occurrence with the leaves as argued by the Prosecutor’s Office. Then, it was acquired from the position under section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence). The Superior Court confirmed the life imprisonment granted to Ramaraj.
Published – April 13, 2025 10:39 PM IST
