Dharmasthala secret burials case: woman approaches SIT, seeks fresh probe into her sister’s ‘rape-murder’ in 1986

The SIT was formed after a whistleblower filed a police complaint claiming that he had been forced to bury several bodies of alleged sexual assault and murder victims in Dharmasthala. The investigation team recently opened a dedicated SIT office, with police station status, in Beltangady to facilitate their ongoing investigations into historical criminal allegations.

The SIT deferred inspection of the 13th site mentioned by the whistleblower after a tense situation prevailed around Dharmasthala following a clash involving a few YouTubers and some residents of the town on August 6. In the eight days of inspections before that, the SIT had recovered fragments of two skeletons.

Meanwhile, the Dakshina Kannada police arrested six people in connection with the clash last week: Padmaprasad, 32, from Dharmasthala; Suhas, 22, from Dharmasthala; Khalandar Puttumonu, 42, from Ujire; Chetan, 21, from Kalenja; Shashidhar, 30, from Dharmasthala; and Guruprasad, 19, from Kalmanka. The police filed seven FIRs hours after clashes that took place over alleged partisan media coverage of the Dharmasthala secret burial case.

The police used mild lathi charge to disperse the crowd during the clashes. Several YouTubers, camerapersons, and a private Kannada channel reporter were among those injured in the skirmish.