A new twist emerged on Saturday amid a Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigation into the Dharmasthala mass burials case.
Activist Jayanth T. admitted that he had sheltered complainant-turned-accused Chinnaiah (the "mask-man") at his house in Bengaluru for three days, and had even accompanied him to Delhi with the skull later presented to the SIT.
Chinnaiah was recently arrested after suspicions rose that he had received lakhs of rupees in cash from a group known as the 'Burude Gang' (Skull Gang) for giving the SIT a skull used in anatomy classes as evidence, a local media report said.
Jayanth—a close associate of self-claimed activist from Dakshina Kannada, Mahesh Shetty Thimmarodi—told reporters outside the SIT office in Belthangady that he had acted on the instructions of Girish Mattannavar, who asked him to take Chinnaiah from the Satellite Bus Stand to a lawyer’s office.
“Since he said he needed a safe place, I gave him shelter in my house for three days and provided him food,” he said.
It was reportedly from Jayanth's house in Mallasandra in northwest Bengaluru—where his family lives—that Chinnaiah had first brought the skull—allegedly his third visit to the Mallasandra house.
The two took pictures of the skull before he accompanied Chinnaiah to Delhi in a rented car to present the case before the Supreme Court.
Perjury-accused Sujatha Bhatt and Mattanavar, accused of presenting a rowdy-sheeter as a human rights activist, were said to have accompanied them. Jayanth added that Sujatha Bhatt had never visited his Bengaluru house, though he claimed that Kusumavathi, mother of rape and murder victim Soujanya, had visited his house earlier.
"With good intentions, I helped Chinnaiah, and I am no part of any conspiracy. If SIT finds me guilty, I am ready to face the law ... My children and wife live in that house. I never realised that the matter would reach this level," Jayanth told the media.
The SIT is next expected to visit two more houses connected to the case, unnamed sources told Times of India.
