Bengaluru, 4 Sept 

Home Minister G Parameshwara questioned the push for an NIA probe into the Dharmasthala mass burial case, saying that the State government had already constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT). The Centre has to justify any move to take over the inquiry, he remarked.

“Earlier, they (religious leaders) were saying that the SIT probe itself was not proper,” he said Thursday. “Now they are demanding that the matter be handed over to the NIA. Isn’t that an investigation too?”

He was responding to a query from reporters about Seers meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah and pressing for a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe.

On the issue of foreign funding, he replied, “Naturally, the Central government has to probe that aspect as the State government cannot do it.”

Asked whether the state would comply if the NIA formally sought the case, he said, “The NIA will have to justify why it wants to probe it. The state government will not have options if they justify it.”

Refuting claims of a reinvestigation into the 2012 case of Soujanya, who was kidnapped, raped and murdered in 2012 in Dharmasthala, Parameshwara said, “I am not going to call it reinvestigation. We will get to know with what objective and link they (SIT) are investigating it. We cannot say at this juncture.”

Uday Jain, one of the main accused in the Soujanya case, was recently summoned by the SIT.