Almost a month since there was a complaint of illegal burials of dead bodies in Dharmasthala, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) started exhuming bodies that the 50-year-old sanitation staff member alleges to have interred a decade ago. On July 28, the complainant presented 13 places where bodies have supposedly been buried, in and around the bathing ghat in Dharmasthala, to the SIT officials. The SIT officials had identified the places. Police officials stood guard during the night at these places.
After the submission of the details of the spots to Assistant Commissioner (Puttur) Stella Verghese, the SIT was allowed to proceed with the exhumation process. Verghese reached the Dharmasthala police station on July 29 morning. A forensic team also reached the police station. Over 10 labourers were summoned.
All the officers, including the complainant, approached the bathing ghat at about 1 pm. They moved towards the left side forest area of the bathing ghat where labourers started excavating the earth looking for the reportedly buried bodies.
Besides Verghese, Superintendent of Police Jithendra Kumar Dayama, Udupi forensic scientists, and scene of crime officers, were present on the spot.
Also read: SIT probe begins in Dharmasthala mass burial case
The earth digging process to search for the purportedly buried bodies will take around two hours at the first site, according to officials.
The special investigation team (SIT) probing the charges of mass burials of the victims of sexual assault and murder in the temple town of Dharmasthala, made a thorough on-ground inspection on Monday in the town, where the former sanitation employee, who is also the witness and complainant in the case, took officials to 15 sites.
As per the officers with knowledge of the case, the SIT initiated its inaugural ground-level inspection at Snana Ghatta, which is on the banks of the Netravathi river. The team, with the complainant and three lawyers, inspected the place where he had previously allegedly dug up a skull and some other nearby points allegedly used for body disposal.
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