SIT final report details gory findings at Banglegudde hillock in Dharmasthala

Mangaluru

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the mass burial case has elaborated on the gory findings at Banglegudde hillock in the temple town of Dharmasthala. The 7,005-page report was submitted before the Additional Civil Judge and JMFC in Belthangady on July 15.

The report, filed by Superintendent of Police C.A. Simon, comprises 12 volumes and includes additional documents gathered during the course of the investigation. The report contains statements from around 255 witnesses, forensic science laboratory (FSL) reports, a 4TB hard disc containing video-recorded witness statements, and forensic evidence, including skeletal remains and bones recovered during the probe. The report also documents the various stages of the investigation carried out by the SIT over several months and places on record the evidence collected during the course of the inquiry.

A section of the report seen by blrpost.com reveals that the SIT has described the controversial Banglegudde hillock as a site that has allegedly been used for anti-social activities. This is for the first time an Indian investigation agency has made a finding regarding alleged anti-social activity around the temple town. Until the SIT investigation, none of the agencies had found evidence for suspected criminal activities in the area. The observation assumes significance as it forms part of the final report submitted before the court after an extensive investigation.

Beyond the SIT recovering seven skulls and more than hundred bones from the surface of this mystery hillock, the investigating agency was able to match the DNA of three skulls and one bone with the family members of the missing persons. While the bone has matched, the skull corresponding to the bone is still missing. This means the family members can now demand that the government recover the full body of the missing person. The sources said these bodies may have popped out from the surface due to torrential rains or animal intervention. These bodies were buried in shallow graves.

This also means that the forensic probe successfully identified the remains of four missing persons who had gone missing more than a decade ago. Among the four missing persons whose DNA profiles were matched are Adishesha Narayana from Gubbi in Tumakuru and U.B. Aiyappa (70) of Shettigeri village in Ponnampet taluk of Kodagu district. It must be noted that the SIT had drawn blood samples from over 10 family members of missing persons for the DNA matching process before arriving at these conclusions.

The SIT has also written to Karnataka Director General and Inspector General (DG&IG) M.A. Saleem regarding Banglegudde. The file number of the letter is SIT (DPS)/CN-39/40/2026. This suggests that the SIT has sought permission to carry out further investigation pertaining to this hill. Saleem appears to have not granted any permission for the same. Sources in the Home Department informed that the SIT wants to carry out excavation at the hill as investigators suspect the presence of more than 1,000 bones and several more skulls beneath the surface. According to the sources, the investigating agency believes that further excavation could potentially lead to the recovery of additional skeletal remains.

The SIT, in the report, has also mentioned a mismatch in the burial records of the Dharmasthala Gram Panchayat and police records pertaining to Unnatural Death Reports (UDRs) registered within the limits of the Dharmasthala and Belthangady police stations. The SIT delved deep into nearly 1,500 UDRs and found a mismatch involving 38 to 43 deaths. In these cases, while some deaths found a mention in the gram panchayat records, there were no corresponding details in the police records. Likewise, in certain instances, police records existed without corresponding entries in the gram panchayat records. The discrepancy has also been documented in the final report submitted before the court.

In connection with accused C.N. Chinnayya and activists, while the SIT maintained that Chinnayya came forward on his own, the investigation also found that he was under the fear of activists. The report records the circumstances under which his statements were made during different stages of the investigation.

It may be recalled that the SIT was constituted in 2025 by the Karnataka government after a masked man identified as Chinnayya registered a complaint at the Dharmasthala police station. Chinnayya, a former sanitation worker in the Dharmasthala Temple Administration, alleged in his complaint that he had been forced to bury hundreds of bodies. His allegations triggered widespread public attention and ultimately led to the constitution of the Special Investigation Team to probe the claims in detail.

Chinnayya also recorded a sworn statement under Section 183 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) before the Belthangady court. Based on his statements, the SIT conducted search operations at 13 locations identified by him and recovered two skeletal remains—one at the sixth spot and another from the surface of the ninth spot. After these remains were recovered, Chinnayya denied having buried them and later changed his statement, saying that he had lied. The SIT subsequently charged him under the relevant sections relating to perjury and forgery and arrested him. The forgery allegation pertained to the skull that he had presented as evidence before the court while recording his statement.

Following his arrest, Chinnayya recorded another statement under Section 183 of the BNSS to counter his earlier statement. In this statement, he claimed that the skull presented before the court had been given to him by an activist identified as Vittal Gowda. Based on this second statement, the SIT found that the skull had been recovered from Banglegudde. During the mahazar conducted at the hill along with Vittal Gowda and others, the investigating officers found the presence of multiple other skulls. Following the mahazar, the SIT carried out an extensive search operation at the hillock and recovered seven skulls and hundreds of bones from the site, findings that now form a significant part of the final report submitted before the court.