Bengaluru: The special investigation team (SIT) formed to probe allegations of rape, murder and mass-burials in Dharmasthala is embroiled in controversy even as it is yet to begin its investigation in the matter, with two officers requesting to be replaced, ThePrint has learnt.
In an order on 19 July, the Siddaramaiah-led government had said that Director General of Police Pronab Mohanty would lead the team, and would be assisted by three IPS officers—M.N. Anucheth, S.K. Soumyalatha and Jitendra Kumar Dayama.
“Two officers have made it clear that they do not want to be part of the SIT. They have conveyed this to the government and are convinced about opting out,” said one person aware of the developments.
The person added that one officer said that they would rather face disciplinary action than getting entangled in the politics of the case, since it allegedly involves members of one of the most influential and wealthiest families in the state.
On 3 July, a former sanitation worker of Dharmasthala temple had alleged that he was coerced to bury, burn or dispose of “hundreds” of dead bodies, adding that most of these bodies were those of women who appeared to have been victims of rape and torture.
According to people aware of the developments, the government is still trying to convince the officers to continue in the SIT as their exit would send the “wrong message” to the public. “It’s like they are doomed if they do, and doomed if they don’t,” said the person quoted above, requesting anonymity.
The concern that the two officers requesting to opt out have shared is that they would be subject to extreme scrutiny and political pressure due to the nature of the case and those allegedly involved.
“If they find something, they will face political pressure to alter it or water it down. And if they don’t find anything as expected by those opposing the powerful family, then they will be judged as sellouts. It’s that sort of a case where doing anything or nothing will be equally damaging,” the person told ThePrint.
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‘No changes’
Mohanty is the DGP (Internal Security Division), while Anucheth, who was serving as Joint Commissioner (Traffic) was transferred as Deputy Inspector General (Recruitment) on 14 July. Soumyalatha serves as Deputy Commissioner of Police (City Armed Reserve Headquarters), and Dayama is Superintendent of Police (Internal Security Division).
Mohanty told ThePrint that as far as he was aware, there were no changes to the SIT.
On Wednesday, the government released another order in which it named 20 police officers who will be part of the SIT. But the confusion with respect to the team has delayed the commencement of the probe on top of the initial delay by the Dakshina Kannada Police. The police filed an FIR on 4 July, and the former sanitation worker even made a statement before a Belthangady court on 10 July. But the district police made no progress.
The former sanitation worker had offered to take the police to the burial sites, but the latter showed no interest in even finding out if the claims made by the former were true or not.
On the afternoon of 16 July, he sat in a car while his lawyers waited on the road by the Nethravathi river, expecting the police to arrive. Media personnel and townsfolk watched from across the bridge, but the police never showed up. The complainant waited for 30 minutes and left.
In a statement last Wednesday, the Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police said that there were credible intelligence inputs that the witness was likely to abscond after the digging of the graves. He also said that the police officers have put in a request to carry out brain mapping, fingerprint scans and narco tests on the complainant. Even the skeletal remains that the complainant handed over to the police were not sent to the forensic science laboratory and were kept in a hospital for medical opinion.
The delays in the SIT probe have not helped. Karnataka Home Minister G. Parameshwara has further fuelled confusion by saying that all officers (IPS-level) will remain in the SIT for now.
“If someone has requested the DGP or commissioner, they will be replaced. For whatever reason, the people in that committee, if they give a convincing reason not to be in it, they will be replaced,” Parameshwara told reporters Tuesday. He, however, claimed that he was aware of this information only through media reports and that none of these requests had reached him officially.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)