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Bengaluru, Nov 21 (IANS) The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the sensational mass grave case unearthed at the Dharmasthal Hindu pilgrimage site has filed a 3,932-page preliminary charge sheet before the Belthangady JMFC court, police said on Friday. The investigating agency has sought more time to complete the investigation and has also sought guidance from the court on the future direction of the investigation.
Along with filing the charge sheet, the SIT also presented arguments seeking guidance from the court for further investigation. SIT sought directions for the next phase of investigation. The court has accepted the plea and is likely to issue directions in this regard on Friday.
Investigating officer Jitendra Kumar Dayma filed the charge sheet on Thursday and sought more time to complete the investigation. The preliminary chargesheet spread over seven files and running into 3,932 pages has been placed before the court.
The SIT includes the statement of arrested accused Chinnayya, also known as the ‘Mask Man’, records related to crime sites, details of grave excavations conducted at more than 17 locations and statements of all those who were in contact with him – including activists Mahesh Shetty Thimarody, Girish Mattannavar, T. Jayanth and Vitthal Gowda.
The SIT has also recorded the statement of Sujatha Bhatt, who initially claimed that her daughter was suspiciously missing from the Dharamsthal area and later said that she had no daughter at all. He further claimed that he acted at the behest of the workers.
The SIT informed the court that it has issued a notice to interrogate Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi and others. Some accused are yet to be interrogated and the lab report has also not been received yet. Therefore, the SIT has requested for additional time to continue the investigation and said that the complete charge sheet will be filed after the completion of the investigation.
Responding to this, Karnataka Home Minister G. “We have given permission to the SIT to file the charge sheet in the Dharmasthala case. It is up to the SIT as to when it will file it. They have to file it within 90 days of the FIR and they will do so,” Parameshwara had said in Bengaluru on Thursday.
Refusing to divulge further details, he said, “Once they submit the chargesheet, they will provide information to the government. Let the details emerge; then everyone will know. They will also provide information to the government – after all, it was the government that had formed the SIT.”
Parameshwara said the matter was discussed extensively during the last session. “We will have to place the information before the House,” he said. “Once the report is submitted, we will have all the information – what conspiracy took place, who was responsible. We will present the findings of the report in the Assembly during the upcoming winter session.”
According to the information, supplementary evidence like photos, videos and statements have also been added to the charge sheet.
The SIT has recorded separate statements of all the concerned persons. Details of the events leading up to the filing of the complaint on June 22 and the four-month investigation have been compiled and included in the charge sheet.
It may be recalled that, in a major development on July 11, masked man Chinnaiah, who claimed that he was forced to bury the bodies of women and girls after they were raped and murdered in Dharmasthala village, appeared before a court in Mangaluru district and recorded his statement.
He requested that the bodies be exhumed in his presence and alleged that the victims bore clear marks of sexual assault.
According to him, the bodies were found without clothes or undergarments and had injuries consistent with violent sexual abuse. Furthermore, the arrested whistleblower had also reportedly handed over a skull, which was reportedly recovered from a burial site.
He was given protection under the Witness Protection Act and facilities were extended.
Following the claims, a retired Supreme Court judge and several activists demanded a Supreme Court or High Court-monitored SIT probe into the alleged shrine killings, which may involve the deaths of several women, girls and destitute men.
Later on August 23, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) arrested the unidentified complainant, also known as the “Mask Man”, in connection with the Dharamsthal case. The complainant was arrested for giving false information related to the Dharamsthal case. SIT officials interrogated him for more than 15 hours and concluded that he was misleading the officials.
On August 7, state Home Minister Parameshwara had confirmed that the SIT probing the alleged mass grave case in the temple town of Dharmasthala in Mangaluru district had recovered a male skeleton and human bones from the identified burial sites, which have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).
–IANS
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