The Crime Branch CID on Wednesday completed investigation and filed charge sheet in the Dilson murder case in which a retired Army officer is the lone suspect.
13-year-old Dilson was shot dead in the defence residential complex here on July 3 when he went to pluck fruits with his friends. A week later, the CB-CID arrested retired Army officer Lt. Col. Kandasamy Ramaraj and seized an imported rifle used to commit the offence. According to a senior police official, the CB-CID has cited more than 45 documents and about 70 witnesses as evidence in the charge sheet that runs to over 100 pages. Besides forensic, ballistic and post-mortem reports, the agency has shown a minor as witness to the attempts made by Lt. Col Ramaraj to conceal evidence.
“Strenuous efforts were taken to connect the crime with the accused. We have clinching evidence to prove that Lt. Col. Ramaraj was in possession of the 0.30 Springfield Rifle and ammunition. When Army officials searched his house after the murder came to light, the weapon was not found. Later, based on his voluntary confession, police seized the rifle and ammunition from the Cooum River,” the official said. While ballistic reports confirmed that the bullet which killed Dilson was fired from the rifle seized from the river, the licence renewal application of Lt. Col Ramaraj submitted to the Chennai Suburban Police proved beyond reasonable doubt that he was in possession of the weapon, he said.
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Moreover, experts who examined the nature of injury on Dilson's head indicated that such a wound was possible when shot from close range from a Springfield Rifle. Investigators obtained sanction for prosecution from the Chennai Suburban Police Commissioner for proceeding against the accused person. A special team of the CB-CID that investigated the case filed the charge sheet in the XI Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Saidapet, police sources added.