The report filed before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court at Beltangady is not final. The SIT will file another report, incorporating the findings of scientific tests.
Published Nov 21, 2025 | 2:12 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 21, 2025 | 2:12 PM
The police team during the exhumation process in Dharmasthala.
Synopsis: The report came after the complainant produced a skull to the police in July 2025, claiming that he had been forced under death threats to dispose of hundreds of bodies, many showing signs of sexual violence and brutal murders, in Dharmasthala.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged mass burials in Dharmasthala has named six people, including activists, as accused in its report filed before a local court in the Dakshina Kannada district.
SIT head, Director-General of Police (Internal Security Division and Cyber Command) Pronab Mohanty, submitted the 3,900-page report to the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court at Beltangady on Thursday, 20 November.
Activists Mahesh Shetty Thimarody, Girish Mattannavar, T Jayanth and Vittal Gowda, who had demanded the registration of an FIR in the case, were among those named as accused.
They have been charged under Section 215 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), accusing them of perjury and criminal conspiracy in connection with a skull that was allegedly planted as evidence.
The SIT report further named Sujatha Bhat (who had earlier claimed that her daughter, Ananya Bhat, had gone missing during a trip to Dharmasthala in 2003) and one more person (reportedly complainant Chinnaiah) as accused.
The report came after the complainant produced a skull to the police in July 2025, claiming that he had been forced under death threats to dispose of hundreds of bodies, many showing signs of sexual violence and brutal murders, in Dharmasthala.
Activists Thimarody, Mattannavar, Jayanth, and Gowda, named as accused in the case, were at the forefront of the fight for demanding the registration of a criminal case following the allegations of burials and for the constitution of an SIT.
Thimarody, who is the President of the Rashtriya Hindu Jagarana Vedike, was also involved in the movement seeking justice for a 17-year-old student, who was allegedly raped and murdered in Dharmasthala in 2012.
Despite several probes over the years, her killer has not been found. Activist Jayanth, Mattennavar, former police sub-inspector, and Gowda, the girls’ uncle, were also a part of the campaign for justice.
Bhat, who had earlier claimed that her daughter had gone missing after a trip to Dharmasthala in 2003, later did a U-turn on her claims, stating that she never had a daughter named Ananya.
While initially Chinnaiah gave a voluntary statement to the police while producing the skull, alleging illegal burials in Dharmasthala, he later admitted that he had given a false complaint and false voluntary statement under pressure from Thimarody and the three other activists.
He also claimed that Gowda had given him the skull.
The SIT reportedly recovered skeletal remains during a search operation in Banglegudda forest, near the Netravati bathing ghats in Dakshina Kannada district in September 2025.
Home Minister G Parameshwara had told reporters that the final SIT report would include the analysis by the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) of the bones found during excavation, as well as a chemical analysis report.
However, the report submitted did not include information about the remains found at Banglegudde forest. Mohanty told South First that a supplementary report would be filed with findings from the FSL and chemical analysis reports on the remains found.
Advocate S Balan, representing the activists, told South First that the report might not be the final one.
“They (SIT) mentioned that the investigation into the other allegations would continue. That seems to be inconclusive of the remains found at Banglegudda,” Balan said.
The complainant, formerly employed as a sanitation worker at the Dharmasthala Manjunatha temple, had identified 15 possible burial sites.
The first eight locations were identified along the Nethravathi River. Locations 9 to 12 were beside the highway near the river. The 13th was on the road connecting Nethravathi to Aajukuri, and the remaining two, 14 and 15, were in the Kanyadi area near the highway.
(Edited by Majnu Babu).
