Dharmastala: A Particular Investigation Staff (SIT) probing allegations of secret burials within the Dharmasthala area of Dakshina Kannada in Karnataka recovered partial skeletal stays from a website recognized by a former sanitation employee, officers stated on Thursday.
That is the primary confirmed restoration because the SIT started digging on July 29 at 13 places listed by the complainant, who alleged that our bodies had been buried with out documentation over a interval of practically 20 years.
Officers stated that on July 31, digging on the sixth website led to the restoration of about 15 bones. “A few of the bones had been damaged. No cranium was discovered on the website,” an SIT official stated. “A forensic physician who examined the stays on the location supplied a preliminary opinion that they’re doubtless human bones, probably of a male. However a last conclusion can be drawn solely after detailed laboratory evaluation.”
The location, positioned in a wooded space close to the Netravathi river, was the sixth of 13 marked by the complainant throughout an on-site go to with the SIT on July 28.
The 48-year-old man, who earlier labored as a sanitation employee, claimed to have witnessed or been conscious of over 100 undocumented burials carried out between 1995 and 2014. He had approached the SIT with hand-drawn sketches and descriptions of the burial places, most of that are in and round Dharmasthala.
Earlier than the partial skeletal stays had been discovered, 5 websites had been dug between July 28 and 30 with none discovery of human stays. “The terrain across the sixth website is difficult. Dense vegetation and proximity to the river have slowed the digging work,” the official added.
Forensic personnel and crime scene investigators current on the website documented the precise location and situation of every bone earlier than sending them for forensic testing. Stella Verghese, assistant commissioner of Puttur sub-division, additionally visited the location through the exhumation.
Alongside the exhumation efforts, the SIT can also be following up on materials recovered through the earlier phases of digging. On the first website, officers discovered a PAN card and a debit card. Investigators traced the PAN card to a person named Suresh from Nelamangala in Bengaluru Rural district.
“Suresh died of jaundice in March this yr. His father confirmed to us that his final rites had been carried out at their native village. Our inquiry means that he might have visited Dharmasthala earlier than his demise and will have misplaced his paperwork there,” the SIT official stated.
The RuPay debit card recovered from the identical website belonged to the person’s mom. “She is alive and was bodily verified throughout our investigation,” the official added, ruling out any hyperlink between the recovered paperwork and any unidentified physique.
With the primary tangible proof now recovered, the SIT plans to proceed excavations on the remaining seven websites within the days forward. Officers say the method will stay cautious and methodical as a result of delicate nature of the case and tough environmental circumstances, together with rainfall and underground water seepage.
“We’re treating every website as a separate scene and are documenting the whole lot rigorously. It’s nonetheless early to attract conclusions, however we aren’t ruling something out,” the SIT officer stated.
The SIT is headed by Pranav Mohanty, director normal of police, inside safety division, Bengaluru. Different members of the workforce included MN Anucheth, deputy inspector normal of police, recruitment; Soumyalatha, deputy commissioner of police, CAR headquarters, Bengaluru metropolis; and Jitendra Kumar Dayama, superintendent of police, inside safety division, Bengaluru.
The federal government, in an order dated July 19, stated it was forming the SIT following a suggestion from the Karnataka state fee for girls. The panel’s enchantment was based mostly on a media report, dated July 12, which detailed a household’s criticism about their lacking daughter and the courtroom testimony of a sanitation employee who claimed to have buried a number of our bodies within the temple city. In response to the fee, the report and sworn assertion “point out that for over 20 years, severe acts of assault, homicide, rape, unnatural deaths, and disappearances have occurred involving many ladies and feminine college students”.
In response to the federal government’s order, the SIT will examine crime No. 39/2025 registered below part 211(A) of BNS at Dharmasthala police station. The SIT will operate out of the Dakshina Kannada district police workplace. It has been directed to offer common updates to the DGP and IGP.
The origins of the case traced again to a sanitation employee in Dharmasthala who filed a police criticism on July 3, claiming to have buried our bodies of a number of girls who had been allegedly raped and murdered. His assertion was lately recorded earlier than a Justice of the Peace, and an FIR was filed.
