Excerpts from an interview of Justice Jan with Riyaz Wani

Wasn?t the police team part of the judicial commission headed by you. How can their report be separate from yours?

The police team was part of the commission. But we interviewed witnesses separately. While I invited witnesses over to the Circuit House, where I was staying, the police team went into the field to interview people. I interviewed 40 witnesses. They interviewed 60 witnesses. My report is based on my own interviews alone while the police report is drawn from their interviews.

How did it get mixed up?

I don?t know.

You have said that you have identified the agency responsible for the murders. Doesn?t it automatically rule out civilian involvement?

Yes, there is police involvement in the crime. It is not one man?s job. Killers could be part of this structure. But while I say this, I think we should let the investigation proceed. And see if any other involvement comes up.

You say that the police and doctors destroyed evidence. But the report doesn?t clearly answer why they did it. Was it the result of incompetence or a deliberate effort to hide something?

They were trying to hide something. Everything was involved, even incompetence. There was a sustained effort to destroy all the evidence. This is what has made cracking the case so much more difficult.

pite more than a month?s investigation we aren?t anywhere near solving the case.

First, all evidence has been destroyed. The police have ignored the normal rules of investigation. Doctors have only ended up supplementing this effort. Second, the commission had a very short time to produce the report. We worked for 29 days amid strikes and protests. Most of the time, we interviewed witnesses at night. Now I hope that the Special Investigation Team of the police will take over from where we left. We have identified the parameters for further investigation. The murders have turned out to be a masterpiece of a crime. It was planned well and professionally executed. But I hope the killers will be identified sooner than later.