Mangaluru (Karnataka), Sep 3 A local court in Belthangady in Mangaluru district on Wednesday extended the custody of complainant Chinnaiah, known as the “mask man,” till September 6 in connection with the alleged Dharmasthala mass murders case.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) had produced him before the jurisdictional court and sought extension of his custody for further investigation as his custody ended today.
Judge T.H. Vijendra passed the order extending the custody of Chinnaiah for three days and directed the SIT to produce him before the court on September 6.
The SIT has submitted the report containing the details of the progress of the investigation, questioning of witnesses and gathering of evidence.
Two counsels from the Legal Services Authority submitted their arguments in favour of complainant Chinnaiah. The court has conducted the proceedings confidentially and the public was not allowed inside the court hall during the proceedings.
The SIT had sought 10 more days of police custody of complainant Chinnaiah for further investigation.
The police have already conducted searches and mahazar proceedings in Dharmasthala, Ujire, Belthangady, and Bengaluru. They are also preparing to take him to Mandya in Karnataka, Salem in Tamil Nadu, and the national Capital, New Delhi.
The SIT is also preparing to question activists Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi, Girish Mattennavar, T. Jayanth, and YouTuber Sameer, who raised their voices against temple authorities and made direct allegations targeting the Dharmadhikari.
In addition, the SIT is interrogating Sujata Bhat, a complainant who initially claimed that her daughter, Ananya Bhat, an MBBS student, had gone missing under suspicious circumstances. She later retracted her statement, saying she had no daughter, before going on to claim that she was blackmailed into making the allegation.
In a major development, the SIT had arrested the unidentified complainant in connection with the Dharmasthala case on charges of providing false information.
SIT officials, who interrogated him for more than 15 hours, concluded that he had been misleading the authorities.
The sources revealed that he confessed to being lured by certain individuals into make allegations and press for a specific course of investigation.
Following the serious claims made by the complainant, authorities had carried out excavations at 17 different locations in the temple town of Dharmasthala.
On July 11, the complainant claimed that he had been forced to bury the bodies of women and girls who were raped and murdered in Dharmasthala, and recorded his statement.
He requested that the bodies be exhumed in his presence and alleged that the victims bore clear signs of sexual assault.
In addition, the whistleblower reportedly submitted a skull, allegedly recovered from one of the burial sites, to the SIT.
He was given protection under the Witness Protection Act, and facilities were extended.
The police sources said that the protection given to the complainant has now been revoked.
The authorities are awaiting the FSL and DNA analysis reports of the sand samples collected from the 17 excavated sites.
Home Minister G. Parameshwara stated that due to the nature of the soil at the burial spots, human bones would dissolve, and this will be confirmed through lab reports. He added that the major phase of the investigation will commence thereafter, based on the findings.
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