SIT Begins Exhumation in Dharmasthala Mass Burial Case

 Mangaluru: A day after the whistleblower in the Dharmasthala ‘mass burial’ case pointed to several sites where he claimed he had buried bodies, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Tuesday began the process of exhumation at the locations.

On Monday, the complainant, a former sanitation worker at Dharmasthala, had led the SIT to about 13 places during a spot inspection (mahazar). Acting on this, the authorities granted permission to start digging at the sites on Tuesday.

The first location taken up was near the Dharmathala snana ghatta (bathing ghat), where the SIT, accompanied by labourers, began digging around 11.30 am. Initially, 12 labourers manually dug up to a depth of 3-4 feet till about 2 pm, but no human remains were found. To speed up the process, a mini-excavator was brought in at around 3 pm and the pit was widened to 15 feet and dug to a depth of 8 feet. By 5.30 pm, with nothing substantial recovered, the site was sealed.

The whistleblower, who kept his face covered to protect his identity, was present throughout the exercise. Later in the evening, a canine squad was also pressed into service.

According to his complaint, during his tenure in Dharmasthala he was allegedly forced to bury victims of murder and sexual assault. He filed the complaint on July 3 and deposed before the Belthangady court on July 11, also handing over skeletal remains he claims to have exhumed earlier on his own.

In view of the serious nature of the allegations, the government has formed an SIT to investigate the case. Spot inspections and exhumation in other places identified by the whistleblower are expected to continue.