Gujarat: Retired teacher mauled to death by 'wild animal' in Gir Somnath

RAJKOT: A 64-year-old man was mauled to death on Virpur-Dhava road of Talala taluka in Gir Somnath district on Monday night. The incident was first reported as murder in police station however the post mortem (PM) report suggested the death happened due to the injury inflicted by wild animal.
According to forest department, the victim was identified as Sureja Laxmidas Vakjibhai, a retired teacher. He was attacked while coming from his mango orchard at late night.He went there with some of the labourers and after completing the work he was coming back to his home. When he did not return home his family members went in search of him and found his dead body in the pool of blood at 10:45pm on Monday. They informed the police and primarily it was registered as murder. However when the dead body was taken to a government hospital in Talala the doctor after examination suspected that injury was inflicted by a wild animal. The police thereafter informed forest department at 2am to examine the body.
Talking to TOI Dheeraj Mittal, deputy conservator of forest Gir (west) division said “There was no eyewitness of the incident and it’s monsoon time so pug marks are not clearly seen but by marks of injury primarily we believe that he was attacked by a leopard. It's difficult to say how leopard attacked.”
According to forest officials generally leopard don’t attack adult persons so there is possibility that leopard could have accidently come close to the victim and attacked.