Overview
- The Special Investigation Team filed the 7,005-page final report in Belthangady on Wednesday, concluding the original mass‑burial allegations were false and naming former sanitation worker C. N. Chinnaiah as the sole accused for providing false information.
- The submission comprises 12 volumes and includes about 255 witness statements, forensic science laboratory reports, a 4TB hard disk of video-recorded statements, and material items seized during the probe.
- Field searches and exhumations at locations identified by Chinnaiah produced only limited human remains, and forensic tests contradicted some of his specific claims, including the origin and sex of a contested skull.
- The Belthangady court took the report on record, posted further arguments to August 29, has not yet ruled on the Dharmasthala temple trust’s application to be impleaded, and related High Court petitions by Chinnaiah remain pending.
- The probe revived sharp public interest in the temple town after Chinnaiah’s July 2025 allegations, earlier naming of regional activists and a former police official as alleged conspirators, and the next steps could include perjury proceedings and decisions that affect those individuals and the temple trust.