The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the allegation of mass burials in Karnataka’s Dharmasthala carried out searches at the residence of activist Mahesh Shetty Thimarody in Ujire on Tuesday.
The SIT move came days after the arrest of C.N. Chinnaiah, the complainant-witness in the case, on charges of perjury.
According to officials, Thimarody had sheltered Chinnaiah in his house for the last two months. The investigators are trying to gather information and potential piece of evidence from his house that could help in the wider probe it has launched in the case.
According to reports, Chinnaiah accompanied the SIT officials during the raids.
Thimarody, the president of Rashtriya Hindu Jagaran Vedike, is currently out on bail after being arrested for allegedly making derogatory remarks against BJP's national general secretary (Organisation) B.L. Santhosh.
The Dharmasthala probe took an unexpected turn on August 23 after police arrested Chinnaiah, whose identity remained unknown till then, on charges of perjury.
#WATCH | Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka: The whistleblower in the Dharmasthala case has been sent to SIT police custody for 10 days.
— ANI (@ANI) August 23, 2025
Visuals from outside Belthangady Court. pic.twitter.com/AicSDr8XON
A local court in Belthangady sent him to ten days' police custody.
A former sanitation worker, Chinnaiah claimed he had worked in Dharmasthala between 1995 and 2014, during which he was allegedly forced to bury several bodies, including those of women and minors. He alleged that some of the victims showed signs of sexual assault and had given a statement before a magistrate.
As part of the probe, the SIT has been carrying out excavations at multiple sites identified by the complainant. Skeletal remains were recovered from two locations.
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However, during the investigations, the officials found inconsistencies in Chinnaiah’s statements, following which his arrest was registered.
“While giving a statement before the magistrate in Belthangady on July 11, the complainant had produced a skull and a few bones, claiming to be that of a woman he had buried. He had also claimed that the woman had been sexually assaulted before her death. However, forensic reports indicated that the skeletal remains produced by the complainant were those of a man,” an official said.
