<p>Mangaluru: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Dharmasthala mass burial case carried out exhumation at a new location shown by the complainant witness on Saturday, but found no traces of skeletal remains.</p><p>The complainant witness had pointed out a site near the road leading to Bahubali Betta in Dharmasthala village. Exhumations were conducted at two spots there. To prevent the public from viewing the search, a green shade net was erected around the area.</p><p>A few years ago, debris from a demolished building were dumped at the site and the ground levelled. During excavation, large chunks of construction debris had to be removed before digging could continue, causing delays in the process. “Near the road to Bahubali Betta, an area measuring about 20 feet X 20 feet was dug to a depth of around 10 feet. No remains of any buried bodies were found there,” SIT sources said.</p>.Dharmasthala 'mass burials': SIT searches new location identified by witness.<p>Puttur Assistant Commissioner Stella Varghese, SIT Superintendent of Police Jithendra Kumar Dayama, forensic experts, and Scene of Crime Officers (SOCO) were present at the site.</p><p>The complainant witness has so far identified 16 locations in Dharmasthala village to the SIT. Of these, exhumations have been completed at 15 sites. Initially, he had pointed out 13 sites near the Nethravathi bathing ghat and the adjoining forest, where skeletal remains were traced at two locations. However, the 13th site near the vented dam is yet to be examined.</p><p><strong>Advocate's claim</strong></p><p>Manjunath N, advocate for Sujatha Bhat — mother of Ananya Bhat, who went missing in Dharmasthala in 2003 — alleged in a press release that there is a conspiracy to obstruct the investigation through deliberate soil dumping in the Bahubali Betta forest area. He claimed that certain vested interests had deliberately destroyed evidence to conceal the truth.</p><p>“We remain confident that the SIT will expose this conspiracy,” he said.</p>
<p>Mangaluru: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Dharmasthala mass burial case carried out exhumation at a new location shown by the complainant witness on Saturday, but found no traces of skeletal remains.</p><p>The complainant witness had pointed out a site near the road leading to Bahubali Betta in Dharmasthala village. Exhumations were conducted at two spots there. To prevent the public from viewing the search, a green shade net was erected around the area.</p><p>A few years ago, debris from a demolished building were dumped at the site and the ground levelled. During excavation, large chunks of construction debris had to be removed before digging could continue, causing delays in the process. “Near the road to Bahubali Betta, an area measuring about 20 feet X 20 feet was dug to a depth of around 10 feet. No remains of any buried bodies were found there,” SIT sources said.</p>.Dharmasthala 'mass burials': SIT searches new location identified by witness.<p>Puttur Assistant Commissioner Stella Varghese, SIT Superintendent of Police Jithendra Kumar Dayama, forensic experts, and Scene of Crime Officers (SOCO) were present at the site.</p><p>The complainant witness has so far identified 16 locations in Dharmasthala village to the SIT. Of these, exhumations have been completed at 15 sites. Initially, he had pointed out 13 sites near the Nethravathi bathing ghat and the adjoining forest, where skeletal remains were traced at two locations. However, the 13th site near the vented dam is yet to be examined.</p><p><strong>Advocate's claim</strong></p><p>Manjunath N, advocate for Sujatha Bhat — mother of Ananya Bhat, who went missing in Dharmasthala in 2003 — alleged in a press release that there is a conspiracy to obstruct the investigation through deliberate soil dumping in the Bahubali Betta forest area. He claimed that certain vested interests had deliberately destroyed evidence to conceal the truth.</p><p>“We remain confident that the SIT will expose this conspiracy,” he said.</p>