After skeleton find, further digging at 14th marked spot in Dharmasthala yields nothing

MANGALURU: On the eighth day of the exhumation exercise, the special investigation team (SIT) probing the alleged mass burial case in Dharmasthala undertook digging at the 14th point where a human skeleton was found two days ago. However, no further human remains were found on Wednesday.

The 13th point identified by the anonymous complainant is proving to be tricky as it is close to the Nethravathi dam and two electricity poles are also on the spot. The SIT, including DGP Pronab Mohanty, DIG M N Anuchet, SP Simon held discussions with officials of the Dharmasthala Gram Panchayat, Minor Irrigation Department and Mescom before proceeding with the exhumation manually on Thursday after cutting off electricity supply.

Earlier, Pronab Mohanty chaired a meeting with the other officials and Assistant Commissioner Stella Verghese to take stock of the developments over the last 10 days. First information repors (FIR) were registered at the Dharmasthala police outpost in connection with the human skeletal remains found at the 6th spot and the skeleton found at the 14th spot and the case transferred to the SIT.

A team also visited the gram panchayat aoffice and collected information about the staff working there between 1995 and 2014. Also, as no evidence of mass burial was found so far, the anonymous complainant was questioned at the SIT office in Belthangady for about one hour.

Meanwhile, six people came out in support of the anonymous complainant claiming that they had seen him burying bodies and offered to help with the exhumation. However, the SIT did not provide any information to the media regarding the development.