There are few takers for actor Govinda aka Chi Chi's claim that his weapon fell down when he was keeping it in a cupboard and a bullet hit below his knee. Experts say that a weapon cannot fire unless and until the trigger is pulled. "The hammer just won't hit the bullet in the barrel unless the trigger is pulled," an expert told the FPJ on condition of anonymity.
According to reports the incident occurred at 4.45 am on Tuesday when the actor was leaving for the airport to fly to Kolkata. Before leaving his apartment in Juhu he apparently checked his revolver and while placing it back in the cupboard it slipped from his hands, fell on the floor and a shot was accidentally fired which hit him below the knee. Amid heavy blood loss, he was admitted to Criticare Hospital, Juhu, where the doctors removed a 9 mm bullet from near his knee.
The incident raises several questions:
* The weapon won't fire if the safety catch was in place. So did Govinda try to keep it in a cupboard with the safety catch open? If yes, then it was a major lapse on his part.
* Even if the weapon had fallen down with the safety catch open there is no way it could have fired "accidentally" because the trigger guard would have prevented that 100 per cent.
* Assuming for a moment that the accident theory is correct, for the weapon to fire at the knee of the actor, who was presumably standing, it should have fallen with its barrel in an upright position at an angle facing the knee which appears far fetched because the barrel would have moved away from the actor's body.
* Also, why would the actor keep the weapon in a loaded condition if he was going away from the city? The normal practice adopted by all weapon owners is to take out the bullets and keep them separately.
* A leading psychiatrist told the FPJ that the actor was earlier counselled for paranoia and wondered if he was in a proper frame of mind to handle a loaded weapon.
* Also the police say that the weapon was of .32 bore while the doctors said the bullet recovered was a 9 mm one. A .32 bore weapon simply cannot take a 9 mm bullet for the simple reason, among other things, a .32 bore bullet has a diameter of 0.312 inches while a 9 mm has diameter of 0.355 inches.
The actor's audio clip released soon after the incident does not give any detail.
Encounter specialist Daya Nayak, who met the actor soon after he was admitted to Criticare Hospital told FPJ that "it was an accident." However, the Juhu police will have a lot of investigation to do after the actor is discharged from hospital.
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