A magistrate court here dismissed on Friday the plea of three witnesses in the sensational encounter killings of 20 woodcutters in Andhra Pradesh to record their statements under Section 164 of Code of Criminal Procedure, following an order passed by the National Human Rights Commission.
The three witnesses – M. Ilango (20), P. Sekar (55) and A. Balachandran (29) — had filed a plea to record their statements through a petition filed by Henri Tiphagne, Executive Director, People’s Watch. The Judicial Magistrate, V. Dhananjayan, dismissed the plea, citing a Supreme Court judgement which said that such statements should be recorded only on the initiation of the investigating officer.
The petition was originally filed on April 29 and hearing was posted to the following day. Mr. Henri said that the trio would go on appeal to the High Court.
