Personnel of the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is looking into the complaint of burial of over 100 bodies, carried out extensive digging at a new site, off the road leading to Bahubali Hills, in Dharmasthala on Saturday. The personnel did not find any skeletal remains.

The SIT personnel went to the site along with the complainant. Clarifying statements by activists that the land was filled with construction waste recently to destroy evidence, SIT sources said the site that was dug was different from the one mentioned by activists. The new site that was extensively dug by SIT on Saturday was not a landfill, they said.

Six arrested

Meanwhile, the Dharmasthala Police arrested six persons in connection with the suo motu case registered for the clash between two groups following attack on three YouTubers and a cameraman at Pangala in Dharmasthala on August 6.

The Dharmstahala Police identified the arrested persons as Padmaprasad, Suhas, Guruprasad, Shashikumar, Kalandar and Chetan.

All the six were produced before the home office of the jurisdictional magistrate in Belthangady on Saturday evening and were released on bail. The accused were directed to appear before the court on August 11.

Journalist booked

The Belthangady Police booked Vasant Giliyar, a journalist, for his recent post on his Facebook page showing a map of Dharmasthala that indicated the number of mosques in red.

In a complaint, activist Shekar Laila said he saw Giliyar’s post where he asked people to look at the way communal forces were surrounding Dharmasthala and infer why SDPI was speaking about “mass burial” issue.

Considering the post as one that incites communal hatred, the police registered Laila’s complaint under sections 196 (1) and 353 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.