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3h ago

SIT Arrests Dharmasthala Whistleblower for Perjury in Mass-Burials Probe

Investigators cite forensic contradictions to justify a shift toward lab results.

Security personnel with the whistleblower, who claims to have been coerced into burying and cremating bodies of women and minors, near a site of an alleged burial related to the Dharmasthala mass burial case, at Dharmasthala, in Dakshina Kannada district,
The temple town of Dharmasthala drew focus last month after a former sanitation worker alleged in a police complaint on July 3 that he had buried bodies of multiple women who were allegedly raped and murdered.
People gather near a site of an alleged burial related to the Dharmasthala mass burial case, at Dharmasthala, in Dakshina Kannada district.
Police personnel at the office of the SIT constituted to probe the case related to the alleged mass burial in Dharmasthala of Dakshina Kannada district.

Overview

  • The former sanitation worker was detained after hours of questioning on August 23 and taken for a medical examination before being produced in court.
  • Witness protection previously granted to him was withdrawn the night before his arrest.
  • An FSL report found the skull and bones he gave a magistrate, claimed to be a woman’s, were male, leading to perjury and false-evidence charges.
  • Excavations at 16–17 identified sites recovered skeletal material at two locations, with DNA and soil analyses pending and field digs suspended.
  • Separately, Sujatha Bhat recanted her 2003 ‘missing daughter’ story, citing activist pressure tied to a property dispute, intensifying BJP–Congress sparring over the probe.