MANGALURU: Dakshina Kannada District in-charge Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao on Friday said the ongoing probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in the alleged mass burial case in Dharmasthala has not tarnished the image of the temple town.
“The SIT probe is transparent. It has no connection to the temple. Sanctity of the Manjunatha Swamy temple has not been violated. They have not dug inside the Dharmasthala Kshetra but in deep forest,” he told reporters in Mangaluru, in response to allegations that there’s an attempt to tarnish the image of the temple. “The BJP is twisting the facts and purposely damaging the reputation of the Kshetra. How does bringing out truth affect the sanctity of the temple? Devotees will not lose faith in God so easily.”
The minister said the SIT is conducting a transparent and unbiased probe to bring out the truth without bowing to any pressure. Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara will issue a statement on the probe during the Assembly session on Monday (August 18).
“Our aim is to bring out the truth. The police will decide what action needs to be taken further. The allegations made in this case are very serious. Hence through the SIT probe, we will find out the truth. We will keep the truth before the people as per the evidence submitted,” he said.
To a query on whether there is a conspiracy behind the allegations, he said, “It might be a conspiracy and there will be a probe into it. It is not an easy task to conduct exhumation in a thick forest during heavy rain. Yet the police are performing their duties diligently.
We have given a free hand to the police. A few judges and even Dr Veerendra Heggade (Dharmasthala Dharmadhikaari) also supported the formation of the SIT. It is good that SIT was formed as now there will not be any doubts about the probe. Otherwise, the local police would have been blamed of not investigating the case properly.”
To a question on whether the BJP is trying to get political mileage, the minister said, “For the initial 10 days, the BJP was silent. Now when the information is slowly coming out, it is trying to get political mileage out of it. It is the BJP’s old strategy to use religious matters for its benefit. The right have been spreading misinformation. In the Paresh Mesta case too, they spread misinformation. They take up even some petty issues and make it big and paint a communal colour to it. But for us it is not a matter of profit or loss. We need the truth to come out,” he added.