MANGALURU: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) identified a new alleged burial site No. 16 on Bahubali Hills Road in Dharmasthala village shown by the witness-complainant and dug at the spot on Saturday, but did not find any remains.
Manjunath N, advocate for Sujatha Bhat -- mother of missing MBBS student Ananya Bhat, alleged that there is an apparent conspiracy to obstruct the investigation through deliberate soil dumping at Bahubali Hill forest area.
“In the ongoing Dharmasthala crime cases, certain vested interests appear to have deliberately engaged in evidence destruction to conceal the truth. Today, excavation work commenced in the forest area at Bahubali foothills. However, to prevent any evidence from being discovered, vested interests have recently dumped approximately 10 ft of fresh soil and debris across this forest area.
With dozens of feet of fresh soil now accumulated, excavating even 7 ft deep may not reveal buried skeletal remains. Should no evidence be found at that site, it would represent a significant obstruction of justice. These reprehensible acts appear to be designed to hinder the SIT’s investigation. We remain confident that the SIT will expose this conspiracy,” he said.
But SIT sources said no debris or soil was dumped at the spot that was shown by the complainant as a burial site on Saturday. “The complainant had claimed that he had buried the body of a Kerala-based woman who had signs of murder. We dug the spot but nothing was found,” an officer associated with the SIT said.
Meanwhile, a person named Vasanth Giliyar has been booked for posting communally inciting messages on his Facebook account about the Dharmasthala case. Dalit leader Shekhar Laila filed a complaint with Belthangady police, alleging that Vasanth posted messages on his Facebook profile which would disturb communal harmony in society. Vasanth has been booked under sections 196(1)(a), 353(2) of the BNS.