BENGALURU, 22 JULY

Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Tuesday said that a Special Investigation Team (SIT), constituted to probe allegations of mass burials in Dharmasthala in the Dakshina Kannada district, will soon begin the inquiry.

The SIT, headed by Pronab Mohanty, Director General of Police (Internal Security Division), consists of Deputy Inspector General of Police (Recruitment) MN Anucheth and IPS officers Soumyalatha SK and Jitendra Kumar Dayama.

Responding to a question on reports claiming that two officers from SIT were seeking to leave for personal reasons, he said, "If anyone from the team has requested the DG or the Commissioner, they will be replaced.”

A former sanitation worker, whose identity has not been revealed, has claimed that he worked in Dharmasthala between 1995 and 2014, and that he was forced to bury hundreds of bodies, including women and minors. He alleged that some were raped and also gave a statement before a magistrate.

To a question about an alleged report submitted to the government in 2018 regarding unnatural deaths in Belthangady (the taluk under which Dharmasthala comes) and no action being taken based on that, Parameshwara said he was unaware of it.