BENGALURU: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) tasked with probing the allegations of mass burials in Dharmasthala has “so far not found any clinching evidence to support the sensational claim. The team is now investigating whether there was a conspiracy to target the temple town and people behind it,” sources told TNIE on condition of anonymity.
“Why did the whistleblower/complainant CN Chinnaniah, who is under arrest on charges of perjury, give a statement under oath before the court that he was coerced to bury more than 100 bodies, including of minors and women many bearing signs of sexual violence? Who instigated him to make such serious allegations? So far, the SIT has not found any truth in Chinnaiah’s claims,” added sources. The Special Investigation Team on Saturday issued 41A notices to three activists - Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi, T Jayanth and Girish Mattannavar for questioning on Monday.
In August, Chinnaiah, who worked as a temple sanitation worker in Dharmasthala between 1995 and 2014, alleged that he was forced to bury more than 100 bodies between 2002 and 2014, including of minors and women, who he claimed were victims of sexual assault and murder. Chinnaiah had subsequently given a statement under oath before the court. He even presented a human skull to the Dakshina Kannada police, claiming that he had exhumed it from one of the several sites where he had buried bodies. He later retracted the statement and reportedly told the SIT that the exhibit was given to him by Vittala Gowda, who is the uncle of Soujanya, who was raped and murdered in Dakshina Kannada in October 2012.
The SIT has dug and examined around 18 said burial sites identified by Chinnaiah. At some sites, including in Banglegudde, some human skeletal remains were found. They have been sent for DNA analysis and forensic examination. Another complainant Sujatha Bhat, who had earlier claimed that her daughter Ananya had gone missing after a trip to Dharmasthala in 2003, later retracted her statement, saying she never had a daughter and that she had made a false statement at the instigation of Mattannavar, Jayanth and others.
The Dharmasthala mass burial case hit the national headlines in July on the embers of the yet-to-be-solved rape and murder case of a 17-year-old Soujanya in October 2012 at Ujire in DK district. Soujanya’s body bearing signs of rape and strangulation was found on October 10, a day after she went missing near the Nethravathi river.
The case was initially investigated by the local police before being given to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). In 2013, the case was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The CID and CBI charge-sheeted the main accused - a vagabond -- Santhosh Rao -- but the CBI court in 2023 acquitted him, citing lack of evidence and flaws in the initial police investigation. In 2024, the Karnataka High Court rejected a plea for a fresh investigation into the sensational murder case, upholding the acquittal of Rao due to lack of evidence.
The state government had set up the SIT in July this year to probe Chinnaiah’s allegations and appointed Director General of Police, Cyber Command, Pronab Mohanty to head it.
SIT receives FSL report on remains
MANGALURU: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged mass burials in Dharmasthala has received the report from the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) on human remains recovered during exhumation near the Nethravathi bathing ghat.
A senior officer part of the investigation said that the FSL report on human remains recovered at Site 6 states that the remains belong to a male and not a female, as alleged by the complainant. “Also, the report states that the age of the remains cannot be determined, and there is no DNA sample also to match it with.
The report on the five skulls seized from Banglegudde is yet to be received,” the officer said. Meanwhile, the SIT will record the statements of five accused in connection with the perjury case on Monday. A senior officer part of the investigation said that they have already issued notices to the five accused—Mahesh Shetty Timarodi, Girish Mattannavar, Vittal Gowda, Jayant T, and Sujatha Bhat.
“If they fail to appear for questioning on Monday, we will issue a second notice, and if they still fail to record their statements, we will arrest them,” the officer said, adding that after their voluntary statements are verified, they will file the chargesheet. Meanwhile, permission for a protest in support of Sowjanya campaign activist Timarodi has been denied by the Dakshina Kannada police.
Dakshina Kannada SP Dr Arun K, in a press communique, said that Anil Kumar, president of Rashtriya Hindu Jagrana Vedike, Belthangady taluk, had sought permission for the protest. “But a writ petition in connection with the case is already being heard in the High Court, and hence permission for the protest has been denied. We will take necessary action if the instructions are not followed,” he warned.
