Nepal Police Laboratory showed that this was not of the type

The ballistics of a bullet which ki!lled Gobinda Gautam of Punarbas in Kanchanpur district indicates that it was fired by Indian security forces, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) confirmed on Wednesday.The 32-year-old, who had sustained a bullet inj*ury, died of excessive bleeding on March 9 when Indian Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel opened fire on Nepalis at Anandapur of Punarbas in Kanchanpur during their altercation with locals from a bordering Indian village over the construction of a culvert. MoHA, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has sent the ballistics, post-mortem and forensic reports to the Indian government as it had sought earlier. An examination of the bullet conducted at Nepal Police Laboratory showed that this was not of the type used by Nepali security agencies, Nepali officials shared. A highly placed government official told the Post that the ballistics showed that the bullet that ki!lled Gautam on March 9 belonged to Indian security forces. None of the Nepali security agencies use that type of bullet, said the official. "Our findings confirmed that Gautam was ki!lled in SSB firing," he said stopping short of giving specifics.After reports of SSB firing surfaced on March 9, the Embassy of India the same day refuted the claims, saying "there was no incident of firing by SSB in Kanchanpur ". A day later, Nepal handed over a diplomatic note to India, condemning the ki!lling of a Nepali in SSB firing and demanding investigation and urging the Indian side to refrain from "such inimical activities". New Delhi in response then said SSB had "initiated an enquiry on the matter" and sought reports to facilitate the process. Gautam's post-mortem at Seti Zonal Hospital, Dhangadi, showed that he died of excessive bleeding. The bullet extracted during the post-mortem had been sent to Kathmandu for the ballistics.