MANGALURU: The SIT investigating the Dharmasthala case has denied reports of the witness-complainant making any claims that a group had approached him in Tamil Nadu to make a false statement about the alleged illegal burial of bodies.
An SIT officer told TNIE, “We have not come across any such statement of the complainant. At present, we treat him as a complainant and we will continue to corroborate the claims he made in his statement under Section 164. We need to first check the veracity of his claims. We are gathering information of other witnesses who worked with the complainant, the then gram panchayat officials and the staff who are still alive and also the police personnel who were working between the period mentioned by the complainant that is 1994 and 2014,” the officer said. He also denied reports of the SIT issuing any notices to YouTubers.
SIT sources further said that a few individuals who worked in the period of 1994-2014 have been summoned to record their statements.
Meanwhile, the SIT is expected to question the witness-complainant and other witnesses on Tuesday. Besides, it will look into other petitions, including the Padmalatha case, alleged murder of a woman in 2010, an elephant caretaker’s alleged murder, and others.
SIT sources added that they will also question the complainant about the skull he claims to have exhumed and the place of recovery in the coming days.