Mangaluru, 25 Oct 

The SIT probing allegations of multiple burials at Dharmasthala has issued summons to three activists — Mahesh Shetty Thimarody, T Jayanth, and Girish Mattannavar--requiring their appearance on Monday.

Failure to comply will result in arrest warrants, as the probe deepens into potential perjury and evidence tampering, police sources said.

The SIT investigation has come to a decisive stage and is nearing completion, according to a senior official of the SIT.

The case originated in August 2025 when a former sanitation worker at the temple from 1995 to 2014, filed a complaint alleging the secret burial of over 200 unidentified bodies on temple premises between 2002 and 2014.

He claimed the remains included victims of accidents, murders, and suspicious deaths, buried without autopsies or police reports to conceal irregularities. Amid public scrutiny, the State government then formed an SIT under Pronab Mohanty.

Investigations revealed the complainant’s close ties to the three activists, all linked to the ongoing Justice for Sowjanya campaign — a decade-long push for resolution in the 2012 rape and murder of teenager Sowjanya in Udupi.

The SIT has claimed that Mattannavar has orchestrated a smear campaign to defame temple head D Veerendra Heggade.