Dharmasthala: Eight Fresh Sections of BNS Added to Mass Burial Case
The case itself was triggered by a sanitation worker, who had served at Dharmasthala between 1995 and 2014. On July 3, he lodged a complaint alleging that he was forced to secretly dispose of bodies of victims of murder and rape
Mangaluru: The special investigation team (SIT) probing the alleged secret burials in Dharmasthala has added eight fresh sections of the BNS to the case registered at the Dharmasthala police station. The move comes after the inquiry of the whistleblower, who is in SIT custody, and searches carried out at the residences of activist Mahesh Shetty Timarodi and his brother last week.
The case itself was triggered by a sanitation worker, who had served at Dharmasthala between 1995 and 2014. On July 3, he lodged a complaint alleging that he was forced to secretly dispose of bodies of victims of murder and rape.
The additional charges include those under Section 227 (giving false evidence), Section 228 (fabricating false evidence), Section 229 (punishment for false evidence), Section 230 (fabricating evidence with intent to procure conviction of a capital offence), Section 231 (fabricating evidence with intent to procure conviction of life imprisonment), Section 236 (false declaration), Section 240 (giving false information), Section 248 (false charge), and Section 336 (forgery).
The SIT had arrested the whistleblower on August 23 under Section 229, after forensic reports revealed that skeletal remains he produced in court on July 11 — claiming they belonged to a female — were in fact those of a male. He was booked on perjury charges.
Meanwhile, Sujatha Bhat, who has claimed that her daughter went missing after visiting Dharmasthala in 2003, appeared before the SIT for questioning on Thursday.
