The former wife of the "Dharmasthala masked man," Chinnaiah, has claimed that he is a serial liar who abused her throughout their marriage. The woman, who has not been identified publicly, said that she believes Chinnaiah was "acting for someone else".
According to the ex-wife, Chinnaiah lived in Mandya for years before moving to Dharmasthala with his brother. Although his parents were respected in their Mandya village, she described Chinnaiah as "lazy." He left the village in 1994, settling in Dharmasthala. He returned to Mandya in 2014 but left again after a year due to a dispute with local authorities.
"I married him 25 years ago. We have a son and a daughter," she told the media. "After marriage, he took me to Dharmasthala. There, Veerendra Heggade gave us a house. He gave me a job as a cleaning staff at the Netravati bathing ghat for a salary of ₹3,000."
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She suspects Chinnaiah's actions were financially motivated. "We suspect that he is doing this for money. When we visited Dharmasthala, he used to take us inside the temple," she said. The woman added that she believes he was "acting on someone's instructions." After their divorce, she discovered he had married twice more, with one wife from Bannari, Sathyamangalam.
Chinnaiah is currently being interrogated by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) at the police station in Belthangady.
Meanwhile, devotees have taken out a procession to celebrate the arrest, hailing the police's quick action. They are urging authorities to expose the wider conspiracy to defame Dharmasthala. The Bharatiya Janata Party has already held a "Dharmasthala Chalo Yatra," and the Congress party is reportedly planning a similar event.
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