Police personnel deployed in Dharmasthala. (Representative image)
Credit: Special arrangement
Bengaluru: A signature campaign seeking an expansion of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into other suspected crimes allegedly committed in Dharmasthala was launched on Saturday at Freedom Park, Bengaluru.
The group, consisting of writers, filmmakers, activists and scholars, represented the ‘Who Killed Women In Dharmasthala’ campaign.
“For decades, numerous cases of missing women, rapes, unnatural deaths, and murders in Dharmasthala remain unsolved. The culprits are yet to be traced. Citing the same reason, the investigation has been halted. This decision is unjust,” they said in a press release.
“Therefore, we demand that the SIT investigation continue until the culprits in the Dharmasthala case are identified, and all Dharmasthala-related cases be brought under SIT probe. On these demands, we are doing a statewide signature campaign.”
Earlier in October, they had met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and demanded the protection of SIT's independence in the Dharmasthala investigation, re-investigation of past cases and deaths of witnesses, "especially cases like Soujanya, Padmalatha and Yamuna/Narayana, where the killers were identified and investigated but the cases were closed", among other things.