Dharmasthala case: SIT arrests complainant after interrogation

Mangaluru (Karnataka): In a major development in the Dharmasthala mass burial case, the Special Investigation Team on Saturday arrested the complainant on charges of perjury. His arrest was made after the protection granted to him under the Witness Protection Scheme was withdrawn.

The police had launched a probe after the 50-year-old complainant had alleged that there were multiple murders, rapes and burials in Dharmasthala over a period of the past two decades. The probe team has not revealed his identity yet.

The SIT and its chief, Pranab Mohanty, have questioned the complainant on Friday till late hours.

Officials said the arrest was made after inconsistencies were found in the statements and documents provided. The SIT is continuing its probe into the matter. The complainant-witness was taken to a hospital for medical examination after interrogation, reported PTI.

The complainant-witness, a former sanitation worker, has claimed that he worked in Dharmasthala between 1995 and 2014, and that he was forced to bury a number of bodies, including those of women and minors, in Dharmasthala.

He had alleged that some of the bodies showed signs of sexual assault. He has also given a statement before a magistrate in this regard.

As part of the probe, the SIT had been conducting excavations at multiple locations identified by the complainant-witness in the forested areas along the banks of the Netravathi River in Dharmasthala, where some skeletal remains were found at two sites so far.

Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara had recently told the Assembly that action can be taken under the law against the complainant-witness if the SIT finds his allegations to be false.

Stating that till now only excavations have happened, had also said that the probe "hasn't even started", and that only the SIT probing the matter, not the government, would decide on the need for further digging.