Keshav Gowda can be seen in the above and Srinivas can be seen below in the picture. Credit: The News Minute
Dharmasthala Crimes: SIT to summon former panchayat president, VP for enquiry
Bengaluru
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Dharmasthala mass burial case will soon be summoning former Dharmasthala village panchayat president Keshav Gowda and incumbent vice president (VP) Srinivasa Rao. The SIT has already collected certain panchayat files for the purpose of investigation.
These panchayat functionaries are claiming in a section of media that in the past years several Unnatural Death Report (UDR) bodies and unclaimed bodies were buried in some of the places the witness-complainant showed. The SIT has now marked 13 of the 15 places which the complainant has identified. The SIT has already found five skeletal remains in the last three days. The SIT official sources have confirmed this finding to the blrpost.com.
A highly placed source in the team said “the team is closely monitoring the media statements of these panchayat functionaries and they will be summoned soon for enquiry. The SIT will also be recording the statement as part of the probe.”
These panchayat members are claiming that the government sanctioned burial site for Dharmasthala village panchayat in 2006 and before that burials were done in isolated or deserted places in the presence of the panchayat officials. It should be noted that some of the points marked by the SIT come under the reserve forest where no bodies can be buried.
These claims have raised several questions. On the other hand, many are wondering as to how there was no burial site till 2006 despite the existence of Shiva temple. The presence of burial sites near many Shiva temples are common and in Puttur taluk in Dakshina Kannada, burial ground is located in front of the Mahalingeshwara temple.