SIT conducting independent probe in Dharmasthala case, BJP doing politics: Siddaramaiah

Mysuru (Karnataka): Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday accused the opposition BJP of doing politics over the Dharmasthala case, and said the SIT was conducting an independent probe to establish facts in the matter. His government was not interfering in the investigation. He questioned the BJP, which is demanding a NIA probe into the case, whether they don't have faith in the state police and dubbed the party's "Dharmathala Chalo" rally as "political." "It is not Dharma Yatre, it is a political yatre. SIT is probing the case, don't they (BJP) have faith in our police, they are asking for a NIA probe. Only after skeletal remains were not found, did they start speaking. Dharmasthala Dharmadhikari Veerendra Heggade himself has welcomed the SIT probe for the truth to come out and to get rid from the sword of suspicion," Siddaramaiah told reporters here.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe was on and the government was not interfering in the investigation, he said. "It is being done independently, let the truth come out and let people know the truth," he added. The BJP held a "Dharmasthala Chalo" rally on Monday to condemn the alleged conspiracy and smear campaign against the temple town. The saffron party that has demanded a National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into the case has also targeted the Congress government over its handling of the matter. To a question on BJP alleging foreign funding to conspiracy against Dharmasthala, the CM hit back saying, "BJP have got funds to do all of this, from where is the money coming. Who is giving them the money." Every issue should not be used politically, he said. "As the opposition party let them criticise the government, but one should not politicise everything. They are doing it for the sake of politics. There is no truth in what they are doing or speaking," he said about the saffron party.

He was not aware of any foreign funding as being alleged. "Let it come out from the investigation," the CM added. Asked about BJP leaders like Leader of Opposition R Ashoka alleging that CN Chinnaiah, complaint in the case, is part of a Congress conspiracy, Siddaramaiah said every day BJP leaders were making different claims, which he termed were false. A controversy erupted after Chinnaiah, who was later arrested on charges of perjury, claimed burying a number of bodies, including those of women with signs of sexual assault, in Dharmasthala over a period of past two decades, with the implications pointing towards the administrators of the local temple. The SIT, formed by the state government, which is probing the charges, has conducted excavations at multiple locations identified by the complainant in the forested areas along the banks of the Netravathi River in Dharmasthala, where some skeletal remains were found at two sites. To a question whether the rape and murder case of Soujanya, a 17-year-old student, in Dharmasthala in 2012 will be re-investigated, Siddaramaih said it was up to the victim's mother and family to decide and go before the court. "Under whom is the CBI-- central government led by BJP. The central government agency has investigated the case. Now who is asking her family to go to the Supreme Court, it is them (the BJP)....they (BJP) are speaking on both sides, they are doing politics," he alleged.

State BJP president B Y Vijayendra on Monday visited the house of Soujanya and told her mother that the party was with them and will bear the expenses if the family decides to move the Supreme Court against the verdict given by the CBI court in the Sowjanya rape murder case, where the main accused, Santhosh Rao, was acquitted. He was let off for want of evidence. To a question on a woman, now claiming that Soujanya was kidnapped and she had seen it, and whether this claim will be investigated, the CM said, "why didn't she say it before CBI when they investigated." "Hiding evidence and truth despite knowing, is an offence."