Basudev Panigrahi in Cuttack on Saturday. Picure by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Aug. 27: The Orissa government-appointed judicial commission to inquire into the 2007 communal riots in Kandhamal has sought more time to complete its work.

Retired Orissa High Court judge Basudev Panigrahi, who heads the one-man commission, said more time was needed to complete the inquest into the incident. He said statements of as many as 373 persons had already been recorded.

The inquiry was ordered by the Naveen Patnaik government after a spate of communal violence in Kandhamal district from December 24, 2007. “The term of the commission expires on August 31. The volume of work left is big. Over 100 persons need to be examined. While three to four months are required to record their statements, another four months will be required to prepare the report,” Justice Panigrahi told The Telegraph today.

“The government has already been moved to extend the term of the inquiry commission,” he said.

Official sources said the government issued the notification in January 2008. The commission was expected to submit its report within four months, but it could start functioning only after it got the required infrastructure in April 2008. The term of the commission had since been extended a number of occasions and the government has been spending Rs 1.5 lakh a month for the inquiry.

The 39th sitting of the commission was scheduled for August 24, 25, 26 and 27 in Cuttack. “The commission had intended to record the statements of eight witnesses during the four days. But only three of them appeared and deposed before it,” said Jagdish Chandra Das, state counsel for the commission.

No hearing could be held today as the two persons scheduled to depose did not appear. “While ex-MP Sugreeb Singh and Sanjay Howara, director welfare (persons with disability) were expected to appear, Howara’s counsel appeared and sought more time and was granted three weeks,” Das said.

Among the three persons who deposed during this sitting in the past three days were Subash Chandra Acharya, deputy superintendent of police (CID-crime branch), who was the then inspector in-charge of Brahmanigaon police station, John Nayak (the then director general of home guards) and Manish Kumar Verma (the then collector of Kandhamal).