Dharmasthala secret burials: No headway in excavation; SIT chief made eligible for central deputation

The SIT has dug up five locations identified by the whistleblower who claims to have been forced to bury bodies of alleged sexual assault and murder victims in Dharmasthala between 1998 and 2014.

By: Express News Service

Bengaluru | Updated: July 31, 2025 08:58 IST

After rain hampered the excavation on Tuesday, when only the first of the 13 sites identified by the whistleblower was dug up, SIT officials deployed three teams to dig the sites on the second day.

An exercise carried out by the Special Investigation Team to excavate remains of bodies allegedly buried around the temple town of Dharmasthala failed to make headway for the second consecutive day on Wednesday, officials said, even as the DGP-rank officer heading the SIT was made eligible for central deputation.

On Wednesday, the SIT dug up four locations identified by the whistleblower in the case, a former sanitation worker. He stated in a complaint filed earlier this month that he had been forced by his superiors to bury bodies of alleged sexual assault and murder victims in the forests surrounding the temple town in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district between 1998 and 2014 and threatened against approaching the police.

However, Manjunath N, the lawyer of a woman who recently complained that her daughter had gone missing at Dharmasthala in 2003, issued a statement claiming that “a torn red blouse, a PAN card and an ATM card” had been found at the first site at a depth of approximately two and a half feet.

Manjunath said in a statement that “the recovery of identifiable items like a PAN card and an ATM card (one of which bore a male name and the other, a female name Lakshmi) provides an avenue for further enquiry, and we trust the SIT will pursue these vital leads with the utmost urgency”.

Responding to a question about Director-General of Police Pronab Mohanty’s continuation as the SIT chief, state Home Minister G Parameshwara said the Government would discuss the matter. “If there is a provision under rules that he can continue to head the SIT, then we will continue. If he has to be changed, then we will appoint another officer of his cadre to replace him,” he said.

It may be recalled that before the Government formed the SIT, the whistleblower’s lawyers, who first went public with his claims about the secret burials, had demanded that Mohanty be entrusted with the investigation, stating in an open letter that they were doing so at the insistence of “a very large number of legal professionals”.

After rain hampered the excavation on Tuesday, when only the first of the 13 sites identified by the whistleblower was dug up, SIT officials deployed three teams to dig the sites on the second day. Despite the day-long exercise on Wednesday, SIT officials are learnt to have not found any remains yet.

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