MANGALURU: The witness-complainant in the Dharmasthala mass burial case has been accorded police protection with a personal gunman and an escort in view of threat perception.
Sources in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the case told The New Indian Express that services of a personal security/gunman and also escort upon his request have already been provided.
The protection to the complainant has been provided by the Dakshina Kannada district police. Earlier, the complainant had claimed that he has a serious threat to his life and urged Dakshina Kannada police to provide him police protection.
The witness-complainant is the former sanitation worker who has claimed he was coerced into burying the bodies of victims of alleged rape and murders a decade ago in Dharmasthala village in Belthangady taluk. The SIT headed by DGP Pronab Mohanty which is investigating the case completed exhumation at 12 of the 13 alleged burial sites shown by the complainant and found human remains in one of the spots. The last alleged burial site no 13 is yet to be exhumed.
Earlier, the SIT was given police station status, which will now enable it to register FIRs.