Dharmasthala 'mass burial' case: Complainant arrested by SIT

Mangaluru/Bengaluru: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Saturday arrested the complainant-witness in the Dharmasthala mass burial case and produced him before the JMFC court in Belthangady, which remanded him in 12 days SIT custody.

The primary grounds on which he was arrested were perjury, sources aware of the development said on Saturday.

He was arrested following several hours of questioning. His identity has been withheld as he is still under witness protection, sources said.

Sources aware of the development revealed that the arrest was in connection with a skull he submitted before the court in Belthangady when he recorded his statement under Section 183 of BNSS in July. The state government subsequently set up the SIT to probe the allegations.

The man had alleged that between 1995 and 2014, he was forced to bury several bodies, mainly of young women, some even minors, who appeared to have been sexually assaulted and murdered at the pilgrimage town on the banks of the Nethravathi river in Dakshina Kannada.

To prove his point, he had appeared with a skull he claimed was that of a woman he had previously buried and exhumed weeks before his appearance before the local police.

"The investigation, however, found inconsistencies in his statements, including when, where and how the body was buried and exhumed, and no evidence was found to back the claims about the skull he produced before the court. This is also supported by forensic evidence," well-placed sources told DH.

During questioning on Friday, he is said to have admitted that the skull did not belong to the body he had buried. Following this, SIT officials took him into custody. Unlike on previous days when he was allowed to leave with his legal team after questioning, officials took him into their custody on Friday night.

After his arrest, he was taken for a medical examination on Saturday morning and produced before additional judge Vijayendra T H at the Belthangady JMFC Court.

After the court remanded him in SIT custody, the SIT then escorted him back to their Belthangady office accompanied by SPs Jitendra Kumar Dayama and C A Simon.

An SIT source said, "The complainant-witness was evasive on his information about the skull and the location. Upon further questioning, he admitted it was not the skull of the body he had buried. We sought his custody for further investigation, which we got for 12 days till September 3. We will investigate where he obtained the skull and its background.”

"We have sought his custody only to gather more information about the skull he produced. Investigations related to the earlier exhumation of sites shown by him will also continue," sources added.

The sources refused to confirm or deny the rumours that the complainant-witness had claimed a conspiracy by some individuals who had forced him to come forward with the sensational claims, as the probe was still in progress.

Earlier, the SIT had conducted exhumation at 17 out of 18 sites in Dharmasthala village, which the complainant witness had shown. Human remains were traced in two locations. The remains have been sent to the FSL. The SIT has so far questioned former panchayat staff of Dharmasthala, sanitation workers alleged to have assisted the complainant-witness, and doctors who had conducted post mortems.