Sujatha Bhat suddenly shows up at SIT office at 5 am, waits hours to meet SIT officers

MANGALURU: Sujatha Bhat, the aged woman who had initially claimed that her daughter Ananya Bhat had gone missing about two decades ago and later retracted only to reiterate the claim, suddenly arrived at the special investigation team (SIT) office at the Belthangady police station at 5 am, accompanied by two lawyers.

Sujatha Bhat aka. Sujatha Upadhyaya had earlier sought time till August 29 to appear before the SIT, but turned up at the Belthangady police station all of a sudden. Though the police told her to come on the appointed day, she did not budge.

The police were busy carrying out searches at the residence of Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi after the masked complainant Chinnaiah’s revelations. After about seven-and-half hours, the police collected some preliminary information from Sujatha Bhat.

The SIT asked Sujatha about her stay in Ripponpet of Shivamogga district and her links to Parika in Udupi, Virajpet in Kodagu and also Bengaluru. Based on their preliminary findings and Sujatha’s claims, the SIT will pursue the case of the ‘missing’ Ananya Bhat.

The SIT had already conducted preliminary investigations based on her claims, including checking the student records at two medical colleges. The checks had revealed that there was no student by name Ananya Bhat enrolled at either of the colleges at that time.