MANGALUR: The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the Dharmasthala mass burial case, has been given police station status, which will now enable it to register FIRs.
An officer associated with the SIT told TNIE on condition of anonymity that the SIT was given the police station status. The officers of Inspector rank and above would be named Station House Officer (SHO), the government order dated August 6 said.
Presently, cases related to mass burial allegations are first registered at the Dharmasthala police station and are transferred to the SIT.
The SIT is headed by DGP Pronab Mohanty, with DIG MN Anucheth, SP Jitendra Kumar Dayama as members.
The SIT is investigating the Dharmasthala mass burial case in which a former sanitation worker has alleged that he was coerced into burying the bodies of victims of alleged rape and murder, a decade ago, in Dharmasthala village in Belthangady taluk of Dakshina Kannada district.