The eight-member SIT has recorded these statements of families, along with the time of departure of the deceased from their respective villages and the time when their calls home stopped.
The team also twice visited the ‘encounter’ spot in the foothills of Tirumala.
The SIT also recorded the statements of the Red Sanders Anti-Smuggling Task Force (RSASTF) personnel and their team leader,
who took part in the ‘encounter’.
The investigators are said to have made “serious efforts” to recover the mobile phones -- be it SIM cards or handsets -- used by the slain woodcutters, but in vain.
The source told The Hindu that 15 of the 20 woodcutters were in possession of
mobile phones when they left their hamlets in Tamil Nadu.
While the Tamil Nadu police have been able to access the call data of the woodcutters’ phones, the High Court-monitored SIT is said to be still processing the information.
‘Unofficial’ observations
Sources said the SIT report examined the "unofficial" observations of a Madurai-based NGO that put out facts pointing to the "fake encounter" angle, but came to the conclusion that the "private findings" were purely based on video footage, "which is highly illogical and hypothetical."
The source said the investigators made serious attempts to record the statements of three prime witnesses, Sekharan, Balachandran, who claim to have survived the ‘encounter’, and Ilangovan, but the occasion did not materialise.
The SIT received information that the three men are currently in the care of an NGO, and are making efforts to present their versions before the designated court under Section 164 of CrPC.In the process of interviewing the victims' families, the SIT spoke to Muniyammal of Tiruvannamalai district, whose husband was among those slain.
SIT waiting for
police report
Further, the SIT is still awaiting the report of the Chandragiri police in Chittoor district, which filed the FIR on the ‘encounter’.
