Twist In Dharmasthala Burial Case: SIT Finds Skeletal Remains, New Witness Comes Forward

Bengaluru: The investigation into the 'secret mass burials' of hundreds of young girls at Dharmasthala, the temple town in coastal Karnataka has received a twist in the tale.

On Monday, the SIT, probing into the allegations, not only excavated parts of a skeleton from a different place, but also collected skeletal remains of human bodies scattered inside the forest in the bushes.

Meanwhile, a new complainant has surfaced, claiming that he was an eye witness for the Belthangadi police clandestinely burying a body of a 12-13-year-old girl in the forest behind a petrol pump, without following any legal procedures.

Till Saturday, the SIT officials had excavated 10 of the 13 spots pointed out by the anonymous complainant, who had obtained a court order protecting his identity. He has been wearing a mask while accompanying the SIT officials while excavating these spots. Barring the spot No 6, where the SIT officials got a man's skeletal remains, the SIT officials could trace nothing in other places. The masked complainant had claimed that he had buried at least six to eight bodies each in spot No 9 and 10. But nothing surfaced.

On Monday morning, the advocate of the masked complainant told Puttur Assistant Commissioner Stell Verghese that the investigation should be conducted in a different spot also. Accordingly, the masked complainant led the SIT team deep in the forest above the Nethravathi river bank, which is called `Banglow Gudda'. While the police recovered skeletal remains of a human being in a pit, they also recovered bones of various parts of human skeletal remains in the bushes.

The SIT personnel quickly got a bag of salt to the spot and collected all the skeletal remains in a box, before sending it to Manipal for forensic analysis.

Meanwhile, a person named S Jayan surfaced and lodged a complaint with the SIT stating that he was an eyewitness to the police covering up the death of a 12-13-year-old girl and burying her body in the forests without following proper legal procedures.

The SIT officials made Jayan to lodge a complaint at Dharmasthala police station, so that it could be transferred to SIT.

Jayan claimed that it was 2002-03, when a 12-13-year-old girl had died under mysterious circumstances near Dharmasthala. It was a school going girl and there were rumours that she was sexually assaulted.

Since there was no police station at Dharmasthala at that point of time, a complaint was lodged at Belthangadi police station. However, the Belthangadi police did not come to the spot for one week and the body had started decomposing.

The Belthangadi police told the people that the body belonged a 40-year-old woman, who had committed suicide. Without following any legal procedure, the body was buried in a forest.

Jayan said that he tried to lodge a complaint against the then Belthangadi Police Inspector, but no one was ready to take his complaint. Since SIT had been formed, he decided to bring the truth out.

According to Jayan, the police have to excavate over 500 meters in the forests behind a petrol pump. The SIT officials have taken over the case.