Dharmasthala mass burial case: SIT begins exhumation process at 11th site

Mangaluru: The SIT team resumed its search operation at the 11th site shown by the complainant witness in Dharmasthala police station limits on Tuesday.

The SIT took complainant witness to the forest area beside the state highway near the Netravati bathing ghat in Dharmasthala. Around 20 labourers accompanied the SIT team. Mini earth mover was also pressed into service.

The location of 11th site is about 20 meters inside the forest from the highway connecting Ujire- Dharmasthala.
Puttur AC Stella Varghese, SIT SP Jitendra Kumar Dayama and other officials, as well as forensic science experts are at the spot.

The complainant witness had earlier identified 13 sites. Search operations had been carried out at 10 of those locations. The body of a man was found at the sixth location near the Netravati river on July 31. No remains were found at the other nine locations that were exhumed.
To prevent visuals of the search from being seen by the public, a green shade net has been erected along the roadside. As of Tuesday afternoon, no human remains were found at the new excavation site, according to SIT sources.

Advocate’s claim

In a statement, Advocate Manjunath N claimed that at least three human remains were discovered in the site shown by the complainant witness, situated 100 metres away from 11th site in the forest area on Monday.

“One of them was of a woman, it is learnt. A woman's saree was also found at the same location. It has been reported that some members of the team that went there were injured after slipping while climbing the hill. It is said that Monday's exhumation was successful because the SIT allowed the complainant witness to take them to a location adjacent to area number 11, instead of asking him to limit himself only to area number 11 that he had initially shown.”