Cuttack, July 7: The one-man commission of inquiry into the Kalinga Nagar police firing has granted two more weeks to three doctors to clarify their stand.

The three medics had allegedly chopped off hands while conducting post-mortem on the bodies of five tribal persons killed in the incident,

The Justice P.K. Mohanty Commission is inquiring into the incident on January 2, 2006, which left 13 tribal people dead after police opened fire on a large gathering protesting against land acquisition for a Tata Steel plant at Kalinga Nagar.

The commission had issued notices to the three doctors — Bibekananda Swain, Shantanu Kumar Sahu and Anup Kumar Nathsharma.

“The commission yesterday fixed July 20 for the next sitting. The commission allowed time till then for the three doctors to file replies to the notices after their counsel sought more time on the basis of an interim order of the high court. The court had fixed July 9 for order on their petition challenging the notices,” the commission’s secretary Niranjan Nayak told The Telegraph.

The commission had received over 100 affidavits. Ninety-six persons from among those who had filed affidavits had been examined so far. But the commission has not been able to wind up the process of recording evidence because the doctors had delayed filing their responses.