The Karnataka government has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) following pressure from various groups to probe the case of ‘secret burials’ at Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada district. Director General of Police Pronab Mohanty will head the SIT with DIG MN Anucheth and IPS officers SK Sowmylatha and Jitendra Kumar Dayama as members. On July 19, the state government issued an order for the constitution of SIT.
The Dharmasthala secret deaths case made headlines when a whistleblower had earlier this month lodged a complaint at Dharmasthala police station, claiming he was compelled to burn bodies and threatened not to go to the police. The victims were women and exhibited evidence of rape and sexual assault, as per the complaint.
In the wake of an FIR on the basis of the complaint filed by the whistleblower, Sujatha, who is a resident of Bengaluru, had approached Dharmasthala police station last week and claimed that her daughter had disappeared when she visited the temple town. She had accused a BJP MP of making the allegation and approached the police seeking assistance to dig up the body of her daughter to bury her with proper respect.
Also read: Dharmasthala burial case: Govt awaits police report to form SIT
The government directive was preceded by a letter of Karnataka State Commission for Women on July 17, which requested the government to constitute an SIT on reports in the media regarding the clandestine burials. The directive stated that the SIT would investigate the FIR on the basis of the complaint lodged by the sanitation worker and expected further complaints pertaining to the case in other police stations of the state.
Before the same, lawyers of the accused had also requested a SIT into the case. Retired Supreme Court judge, Justice V Gopala Gowda, had last week alleged that both the whistleblower and his lawyers were being threatened and urged the government to constitute an SIT to probe the alleged crimes committed at Dharmasthala.
Follow us
