Top police sources in Kochi, where India’s southern naval command is located, said Jamwal raised the gun to his head and fired, killing himself during a training session for the new recruits in the firing range. The incident was then reported to the Intelligence Bureau in New Delhi.

The top-ranking officer’s funeral was held on Friday in this Kerala port city with full military honors after an autopsy was conducted at the Government Medical College hospital in the nearby Alappuzha district.

An expert in anti-submarine warfare and an important link in India’s defense preparedness on its southern coasts said, Jamwal was a highly reputed officer but he was suspected to be having a troubled family life.

His widow Geetha Jamwal, who was not there at the time of his death, arrived in Kochi Thursday and attended the funeral. Officials said family members agreed to conduct the funeral nearby instead of transporting the body to the officer’s native home in Jammu.

The officer who was at INS Dhronacharya, a training compound in the naval base, to inspect the coastal security training for new cadets, reportedly shot himself by accident while examining weapons. The 51-year-old officer, referred to as Arnold Schwarzenegger by friends for his machismo, first fired with an INSAS rifle and changed over to the pistol.

A navy spokesman who ruled out any foul play and possible suicide, had said Wednesday that Jamwal was killed in an “accident in the small-arms firing range,” adding if he “had to commit suicide, he would not have gone to the firing range” where a lot of officers were present.

The bullet hit the rear admiral from point-blank range and it pierced the head one centimeter above the right ear and exited 3 centimeters above the left ear.

According to officers, there are strict regulations at the firing range and if some thing goes wrong there the weapon would be handed over to specialists. A senior official like Jamwal was not supposed to inspect minor pistol snags.

Forensic experts had on Thursday conducted an autopsy and the navy set up a board of inquiry headed by a commodore but the officials are tight-lipped about the police insistence on the suicide.

The local police have registered a case of “unnatural death’’ and started investigation.

“We have identified some eyewitnesses and we would soon question them,” sources said. The 9mm Beretta pistol that caused Jamwals death is also undergoing a detailed examination by ballistic experts.

The mortal remains of Jamwal were cremated at Palluruthy Corporation Crematorium in Kochi where the attendance was led by Vice Admiral KN Sushil, flag officer commanding in chief of the Southern Naval Command. Officers, sailors and civilians of the Indian Navy Navy turned up in large numbers to pay their final respects.

Earlier, the cortege left the Staff House, the official residence of chief of staff at Katari Bagh Naval Base, after his wife and the admiral’s children bid their final farewell. The personnel of the Indian Navy lined up on either side of the road, and paid their last respects as the cortege passed them.

The religious ceremonies which commenced at the end of military ceremonials concluded with lighting of the funeral pyre. Naval personnel fired in the air as a mark of respect to the departed as his mortal remains were consigned to flames.