Dharmasthala mass burial: Parts of human skeleton found during exhumation at 6th marked site

MANGALURU: In a curious turn to the alleged mass burial case in Dharmasthala, the special investigation team (SIT), which has taken up exhumation at the burial locations identified by the anonymous complainant, found parts of a human skeleton at the sixth point near the Nethravathi bridge on Thursday.

Officials suspect that the skeletal remain may belong to a man, but are not sure if they are male or female skeleton parts. The bones were collected carefully and sent to the forensic science laboratory for examination. Labourers continued digging at the site for some more time, but found nothing else. The police also cordoned off the area to conduct spot inspection.

The police also undertook exhumation at the seventh site on Thursday, but found nothing. Over the last two days, the SIT had conducted exhumation at five locations, but had found no human remains. A PAN card, a debit card and a woman’s blouse were found at one of the locations.

The head of the SIT, DGP Pronab Mohanty, who arrived in Dharmasthala on Wednesday afternoon, camped overnight and held a meeting at the SIT office in Belthangady in the evening. The SIT has also sought information from all police station across the state to provide two lists of people who are missing, killed or sexually assaulted between 1995 and 2005 and 2006 to 2015.