The police in Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district said on Wednesday that they had confidential information that the whistleblower in the Dharmasthala secret burials case might abscond once the bodies are exhumed.
The statement came amid allegations by lawyers representing the case that there was a delay in conducting a mahazar of the site in Dharmasthala and that the police “appear completely indifferent” to the evidence the witness, a former sanitation worker, can provide.
A release issued by Arun K, SP, Dakshina Kannada, said, “There is confidential information that the complainant (whistleblower) could abscond. Due to this, there are reports suggesting that there is a hurry to exhume the bodies without following proper procedure.”
The police said the information was shared with the lawyers representing the process. The police noted that the investigating officer had submitted a report seeking permission to conduct brain mapping, fingerprint and naro-analysis on the whistleblower. “The investigating officer will conduct the exhumation process by following proper legal procedures at the stage of the investigation where it is deemed appropriate to do so,” a police officer said.
The whistleblower has alleged that he was forced to bury the bodies of several women that had signs of sexual assault in the temple town of Dharmasthala between 1998 and 2014 and that he was threatened of dire consequences if he approached the police.
The lawyers of the whistleblower issued a statement saying that he had not sought anonymity to escape scrutiny. “It is wrong for the police to now suggest that, merely because some information may already be known, they are relieved of their duty to provide him with witness protection,” the release said.
The lawyers alleged that the investigating officer in the case “attempted to breach attorney-client privilege by demanding to know whether the witness had given specific instruction to his lawyers to release the redacted complaint and the FIR” to the media. The breach of attorney-client privilege, they said, constituted a “serious overreach and threatens the fundamental legal protections accorded to all persons”.
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Referring to the sworn statement made by the whistleblower during the late hours of July 11, the lawyers said that he had “disclosed specific names” and expressed grave apprehensions about threats to his life. While recording the statement, he handed over human remains from one location of exhumation, they added.
“He had every reason to believe that the very next day, the police would return with him to the site of mahazar and documentation. Yet, as of today, 16th July, no such step has been taken… The continued delay is not just explicable, it is shocking to the complainant,” the release stated.
Also on Wednesday, a woman who filed a complaint about her daughter going missing at Dharmasthala in 2003 issued a statement urging the Karnataka High Court and the Supreme Court to intervene and get her daughter’s “remains” exhumed.
“Yesterday, I gave the complaint to the police and the SP. Today, I was waiting with bated breath to find out if the very first exhumation will be of my daughter. The Dharmasthala police never turned up. They seem to be extremely terrified of exhuming the bodies that the complainant has stated that he has buried,” she said.