Bheema’s police custody only pertains to skull, not Thimarodi and Mattannanavar 

Bengaluru 

The local court has sent the witness-complainant and the accused in the mass burial case to 10-day police custody on Saturday. His custody pertains only to perjury and forgery of evidence relating to the skull, said sources in the Home Ministry.

Sources speaking to blrpost.com said, “During the investigation, it was found that he produced the skull in the court as fake evidence and lied about it under oath, which amounts to forgery and perjury, respectively. This has nothing to do with Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi and Girish Mattannanavar yet. His Section 164 statements made before the Principal Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate First Class are still under investigation.”

The sources added that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) will now grill the accused about the skull to determine from where he obtained it and why he presented it as evidence before the court.

The SIT will also question him about his Section 164 statements. On Friday and Saturday, during questioning, Bheema reportedly admitted that he had buried post-mortem bodies and also engaged in illegal burials. The SIT will now ask him to show where he carried out these illegal burials and may even resume digging.

On the other hand, Girish Mattannavar said, “Sowjanya activists are not shaken by his arrest, and in fact, his arrest will strengthen the case against Dharmasthala.” He added that activists are ready for any kind of investigation by the SIT.

Bheema was interrogated throughout the day on Friday, with questioning continuing until the early hours of Saturday. The SIT posed every possible question related to the case in an effort to unearth the truth. He was arrested in the morning.

It should be noted that the State government formed the SIT on July 19 after Bheema filed a complaint at the Dharmasthala police station. The police had registered an FIR on July 4. The complainant, a former sanitation worker, alleged that he was forced to bury bodies and claimed that many of the deceased were victims of abuse and sexual violence.

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