While police are claiming that the gangsters were the first to open fire, the PUCL has alleged that Pawle and Tandel were unarmed and were killed in cold blood. The PUCL counsel, Rati Amrolia, said a close look at the medical certificate produced by Constable Jadhav revealed that his injury was just a contused lacerated wound. ``This could not have been caused by a bullet by any stretch of imagination,'' she said.

She also argued that since the post-mortem reports of Pawle and Tandel mention ``singeing'' and ``tatooing'' of bullet wounds, it was clear that they were fired at from close range.