MANGALURU: The officials of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), along with personnel from the State Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) and Scene of Crime Officers (SOCO), conducted a crime scene recreation exercise at Banglagudde in Dharmasthala on Thursday, as part of the ongoing probe into the alleged mass burial case.
The exercise was carried out at the location where former sanitation worker CN Chinnayya had earlier claimed to have found human remains. Chinnayya had alleged that multiple bodies were buried in the area and later submitted a skull reportedly recovered from Banglagudde to the authorities concerned.
Informed sources said that the investigators recreated the sequence of events relating to the recovery of the skull. The exercise reportedly included the re-enactment of the excavation carried out by Vittal Gowda, uncle of Sowjanya, the college student whose 2012 murder case drew widespread attention. The recovery process had allegedly been videographed by Pradeep Kulal at the time.
The SIT team documented the recreation process and collected inputs relevant to the investigation.
Officials from the forensic and crime scene units assisted in examining the site and reconstructing the circumstances surrounding the alleged recovery of the remains.
Chinnayya had approached the police alleging that several unidentified bodies had been buried in and around Dharmasthala. Based on his complaint, Dharmasthala Police registered a case on July 4 last year, following which the state government constituted an SIT to investigate the allegations.
An official associated with the investigation confirmed that the crime scene recreation was undertaken as part of the evidence-gathering process and to verify details provided during the course of the inquiry.