KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 16 — Doctors expect R. Sri Sanjeevan to regain consciousness in less than three days after a bullet was removed from him yesterday, the MyWatch chief’s father said today.

P. Ramakrishnan said the Serdang Hospital doctors had told him yesterday at 7pm, after a successful five-hour operation on his son, that Sanjeevan (picture) would wake up between 24 and 72 hours.

“This morning, when we went and saw, he’s still unconscious,” Ramakrishnan told The Malay Mail Online today.

“In a short while, we’ll be visiting him,” he added.

Doctors had performed surgery on Sanjeevan to remove a blood clot and the bullet from his lungs, after which the bullet was sent to the Cheras police forensics department.

Negri Sembilan police have insisted on investigating Sanjeevan’s shooting as the case falls under the jurisdiction of Jempol police, despite Ramakrishnan calling for Bukit Aman to take over the probe to avoid a “conflict of interest”.

MyWatch co-founder S. Gobi Krishnan, who had accompanied Ramakrishnan in lodging a police report last Tuesday, pointed out that the crime-fighting activist had made complaints against the Negri Sembilan state police.

However, Negri Sembilan CID Asst Comm Hamdan Majid was reported today by English daily New Straits Times as pledging a “just and fair” investigation into Sanjeevan’s shooting.

Sanjeevan was shot on July 27 in Bahau, Negri Sembilan, a few days after he alleged corruption in the police top brass.

The 29-year-old had tweeted through his @SanjeevanSS account on July 25, saying “Seriously thinking to expose on a top leader of @PDRMsia where his son is under payroll of kingpins and some syndicates. Interesting piece!”, referring to the Twitter account of the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM).

Hours before his shooting by a man riding pillion on a motorcycle, Sanjeevan had tweeted: “A @PDRMsia cop told some syndicate fellow that he’ll get them firearm & told them to fire few shots at my house to scare me/family!”

Sanjeevan’s shooting on July 27 and the assassination of Arab-Malaysian Development Bank founder Hussain Ahmad Najadi in Kuala Lumpur two days later are the two high-profile cases in a recent surge in gun violence.