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Key witness deposes before Wadhwa panel

Ralia Soren, the key witness in the murder of Australian missionary Graham Stewart Staines and his two sons at Monoharpur village in Orissa's Keonjhar district, has told the Justice D P Wadhwa Commission that he had only put his signature on the first information report drafted by the police.

Deposing before the commission in Bhubaneswar, Soren said he had narrated the incident before the police station. However, his statement was recorded by the police in the village later that night. He was so deeply shocked over the killings that, although the contents of the FIR had been read to him by the police, he could not understand them. He had simply put his signature on the FIR.

He also denied that he had named five accused in the FIR. ''I had given only three names to the police,'' he said.

Soren also disowned an affidavit (allegedly signed by him), written in English, submitted before the commission.

UNI

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