Chennai, Oct. 25: The Dharmapuri district collector, Ashish Vachhani, has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the circumstances of the October 18 shootout involving the Special Task Force in which forest brigand Veerappan and three of his associates were killed at Padi village.

The district revenue officer, who has been appointed the inquiry officer, today called for all materials and documents to be submitted to him, besides making an appeal to people to depose before him, if they wished, on the incidents that took place on October 18 night.

Official sources told The Telegraph tonight that such an inquiry is mandated under law and the district collector as the district magistrate had ordered the magisterial inquiry soon after the FIR was registered in the case in the wee hours of October 19.

The district revenue officer had also conducted an inquest on all the four bodies, examining the injuries on them before handing them over to the district hospital authorities for post-mortem, the sources said.

A ?preliminary inquest report? had been submitted to the district collector, they added.

However, sources said the final inquest report would form part of the magisterial inquiry report to be submitted by the district revenue officer.

Since Veerappan?s case is a sensitive one, the inquiry is bound to take some time and will cover everybody concerned, including the doctors.

So far, a human rights group, People?s Watch, has submitted a representation to the district collector expressing doubts over the special task force?s version on the encounter, sources said, adding, the complaint had been referred to the district revenue officer conducting the inquiry.