The Special Investigation Team probing allegations of secret burial of hundreds of people in the Dharmasthala temple complex in Karnataka has issued summons to three activists. Summons have been sent to Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi, T Jayant and Girish Mattanavar and ordered to appear on Monday. If these three activists do not appear, the SIT is preparing to issue arrest warrants against them.
According to a senior police officer, the Dharamsthal mass burial case has now reached its turning point. The investigation into this matter is likely to be completed soon. This sensational case came to light in August 2025, when Chinnaiah, a former sanitation worker who worked at the shrine, revealed that around 200 unidentified bodies were buried in the temple premises between 2002 and 2014.
Chinnaiah had claimed that these bodies included victims of road accidents, murders and suspicious deaths, whose bodies were disposed of secretly to hide irregularities. His allegation shook the entire state. He presented as evidence a human skull, which he claimed to have recovered from the same premises. This skull later became the central link of this entire case.
As soon as this complaint came to light, there was huge anger among lakhs of devotees of Dharmasthala temple. Amidst increasing public pressure and political turmoil, the state government formed a special investigation team under the leadership of senior officer Pranab Mohanty. The investigation gradually brought the case to a new turn. A close relationship was revealed between the three activists Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi, T Jayanth and Girish Mattanavar.
All three are associated with the ‘Justice for Saujanya’ campaign, a decade-old campaign that started after the rape and murder of teenage girl Saujanya in Udupi in 2012. The SIT investigation revealed that Chinnaiah had been given shelter by Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi at his house in Ujire just before filing the complaint. On August 26, 44 important items were recovered during a search at Thimarodi’s house.
These included a laptop with 25 videos related to Chinnaiah’s media interactions and several mobile phones with 21 recordings. Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi is the same person who was expelled from Raichur district some time ago for attacking a journalist. Now the SIT is interrogating him whether he played a role in increasing or fabricating the allegations in this case.
Bengaluru-based activist T Jayanth is accused of giving shelter to Chinnaiah in his house for three days after his arrest. Jayant admitted that he had acted on the instructions of Girish Mattanavar. He denied conspiracy, but said he was ready to face charges. He also said that he had filed a separate complaint against the shrine in 2002-2003, accusing it of wrongly burying the body of a 15-year-old girl.
The third accused, Girish Mattanavar, who is a former sub-inspector and also the coordinator of the Justice for Saujanya campaign, had arranged for Chinnaiah to meet Jayant in April 2025. SIT investigation revealed that Mattanavar had made the entire plan to take the skull to Delhi. Mattanavar was accused of conspiring to defame temple chief D Veerendra Hegde.
The most important turning point in the SIT investigation came when the forensic report revealed that the human skull presented by Chinnaiah was actually from a medical research centre. That means it was not related to any crime scene, but to a laboratory. This revelation shook the very foundation of the case. Now the investigation has moved in the direction of false testimony and tampering with evidence. All three are activists in its circle.
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