MANGALURU: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged mass burials in Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada has gathered information on families of 17 missing persons. Also, the process of matching their DNA to the human remains recovered in the Banglegudde reserve forest is underway.
SIT had recovered seven human skulls and other remains in 2025 during combing of the Banglegudde area from where a human skull was earlier taken and produced to the court by the complainant — a former sanitation worker who had claimed burying several bodies of victims of rape and murder.
After the recovery of the human remains, it was handed over to the police and cases of Unnatural Death Report were registered at Dharmasthala police station. The human remains were later handed over to the Bengaluru FSL for further analysis. According to forensic experts, all human remains belong to male individuals.
SIT has since been gathering details of missing persons registered with the State Crime Records Bureau, District Crime Records Bureau and various police stations in Karnataka, neighbouring Kerala and Telangana, and other states, especially of those who went missing in Dharmasthala. Also, a few persons met the SIT saying that their family members went missing in Dharmasthala.
Of the seven human remains recovered, SIT has reportedly gathered information of two missing persons. One of them has reportedly been identified as 70-year-old UB Ayyappa of T Shettigeri village, Ponnampet taluk, Kodagu district, who had reportedly gone missing seven years ago, as his identity card was found at the site along with the skeletons.
The second person has been reportedly identified as Adishesha Narayana of Gubbi, Tumakuru district, who allegedly went missing in 2013. His driving licence was recovered at Banglegudde by SIT.
An officer part of the SIT told The New Indian Express that they have collected blood samples of kin of eight missing persons already and they will match the DNA with human remains recovered at Banglegudde reserve forest. “We have gathered details of the relatives of nine more missing persons whose blood samples will be collected for DNA analysis,” the officer said.