MANGALURU: Dharmasthala Gram Panchayat vice-president Srinivas Rao and former president Keshav Gowda Belalu on Friday recorded their statements before the Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the alleged mass burial case in Dharmasthala.
The SIT had issued them notices after they had made several statements in support of the temple administration and also alleged burials in Dharmasthala village. Meanwhile, Sowjanya campaign activist Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi was issued a notice to appear before the Belthangady police after he was booked under the Arms Act.
During searches by the SIT in connection with the burial case, weapons and a gun were seized and he is accused of illegally possessing them. Later, the SIT had registered a case at the Belthangady police station. When officials went to his house on Friday, he was not present and the notice was pasted in front of his house.
In the meantime, CK Chandra from Dharmasthala village has filed a complaint with the SIT against Sowjanya’s mother Kusumavathi accusing her of making false and misleading statements to a few Youtube channels that her husband was killed by a “slow poison.
“She further attempted to indirectly connect the individuals she had named in her daughter’s death and others from Dharmasthala with baseless claims,” he alleged in the complaint.