The key whistleblower in the Dharmasthala mass burial case was arrested on Saturday for allegedly misleading the Karnataka police SIT with false claims, sources told India Today TV. The ex-sanitation worker of the Dharmasthala temple, who alleged burying 70–80 bodies at different sites, was detained after overnight questioning till 6 am.
00:06Sources have told India today that the special investigation team investigating the Dhansala issue has arrested the masked man at 6 a.m. today.
00:15He was questioned from last evening till this morning at 6 a.m.
00:19Post questioning, he's formally been arrested.
00:23He will be produced before the magistrate by this evening.
00:25This arrest is based on false information given to the investigating team.
00:32Massive twist that we are now seeing.
00:34Dhansala, masked complainant, has now been arrested.
00:38Sources have told India today that this person has been questioned till 6 a.m. in the morning.
00:48Dhansala became a big issue when there were several questions that were being asked with regards to the complaints that were being done.
00:55Dhansala case.
00:56In fact, Sujata Bhatt also has now done a big U-turn on the missing daughter complaint that she had filed.
01:05The SIT team was formed, the special investigation team was formed and they were probing the ongoing Dhansala case.
01:12There were allegations that there have been suspicious deaths and burials.
01:16Sujata Bhatt earlier claimed that she had a daughter named Ananya Bhatt who went missing after a trip to Dhansala way back in 2003.
01:23This is a massive twist that we are seeing taking place in the Dhansala case.
01:29The special investigation team investigating the Dhansala issue has arrested the masked man.
01:35He was questioned from late evening till this morning 6 a.m.
01:39Post questioning, he has formally been arrested.
01:41He will be produced before the magistrate by this evening.
01:45Arrest is based on false information given to the investigating team.
01:48This is a big controversy which has now been exposed.
01:59There was an attempt and that is what a lot of experts were also pointing fingers at to malign the Hindu religious places.
02:05This had actually become extremely religious.
02:07It all began when the lady who had said that she had a daughter who went missing after she went to a trip to Dhansala in 2003.
02:17Sujata Bhatt had said that she thinks that allegedly this is the case where her daughter was also being buried.
02:25Now she is claiming she never had a daughter.
02:27My colleague Nagarjun Dwarkanath is now joining me on the story.
02:32Nagarjun, this is big news which is coming in at the moment.
02:35False information was being given.
02:37We understand that he will be produced before the magistrate in the evening today.
02:41Well, that's true.
02:43What we are picking up from our sources is that SIT investigative, the team which is investigating this Dharmastala issue,
02:49had grilled the masked man who had initially given the complaint with a piece of skull also to the FSL team.
02:55Now he was grilled from last evening till 6 a.m. this morning and he was formally arrested at 6 a.m.
03:00and now he is being produced before the court by evening.
03:03He is now taken to the hospital for medical check-up to follow the protocol.
03:06Before anyone being produced to the court, he needs to undergo a medical check-up.
03:10What we are picking up from our sources is that he was arrested based on the false information that he had given.
03:16And what was the information that he gave or confessed before the SIT?
03:19Initially, he gave a complaint to the Beltangri police station with a skull claiming that he had kept burying bodies from 1994 to 2014 in Dharmastala
03:29based on the temple authority's instructions.
03:31He also had given an interview to India Today's Sagai Raj speaking about how he could not sleep overnight
03:37and he had guilt conscious there could be dead bodies coming in his dream and hence he came out clean about asking him to bury the dead bodies from the temple administration.
03:47And now, 18 such spots or 16 such spots were dug up.
03:52Nothing found till now is what the SIT said.
03:54And based on that investigative evidence, they have arrested him after questioning him overnight
03:59because they feel that he's given false information.
04:02We'll have to wait and watch what are the grounds of the arrest when they produce before the court.
04:06We would have access to the document.
04:08In a couple of hours, we'll exactly know the reasons why the masked man is arrested.
04:12Right, Nagarjun, you know, a lot of people at the moment are also pointing fingers that is it religious?
04:18Is that the crux of what we are looking at at the moment?
04:21And he did.
04:22You know, when the person came out and said that he was the one who was being asked to allegedly bury these dead bodies,
04:28it became a huge, huge controversial point.
04:32Well, it became a political fight also.
04:33We saw the debate in the Karnataka Assembly where BJP hit out at the government for trying to take sides with leftist parties
04:41is what the BJP alleges that people who want to bring bad name to Dharmastra.
04:45Nagarjun, please, please stay on with me.
04:47G.S. Prasant, who's the BJP Karnataka spokesperson.
04:49He's now joining me on the story.
04:51Mr. Prasant, do you believe that this is a religious battle?
04:54At the core of this is religion?
04:56Before you get down to the what is the core of the issue, you look at how Congress has dealt with it.
05:05They wanted to belittle the beliefs of lakhs of Hindu devotees.
05:11The moment the leftist groups wanted an SIT to be formed, the CM initially said no,
05:16but within four hours, they did a U-turn and formed the SIT and also gave protection to the so-called vigil blower
05:24without even following due procedures.
05:26How can you be a vigil blower when the investigation is not carried out?
05:30Which means without even getting on to prima facie investigation, basic investigation,
05:35to even uncover the, what do you say, fundamental truths about it,
05:39they went under the notion that the masked man is actually giving proper information
05:46without even proper inquiry.
05:48And therefore, once the state government now has been caught napping and that there is nothing found,
05:56despite, what do you say, continuous digging for so many days,
06:00now only to protect its image, the Congress government has now arrested the complainant.
06:07This should have been done in the first instance without carrying out prima facie investigation.
06:11They should not have proceeded to form the SIT.
06:13And now that the SIT was formed, this man, under no circumstance, could have been a vigil blower
06:19because he will become a vigil blower only when inquiry has been done
06:22and police prima facie finds out that there is truth in what he is saying
06:28and that he is able to help the police in discovering the truth.
06:33Only then probably he could have been treated as a vigil blower.
06:35However, all the established norms for treating him as a vigil blower were given a go-by
06:40and he was given all the protection.
06:44And now his truths have been bundled out.
06:47They have arrested him as a face-saving matter for the state government.
06:51This was done, I repeat, only to belittle the beliefs of Hindu devotees.
06:56And this is under the complete, what do you say, the toolkit of the Congress was activated here.
07:03The leftists led the agenda and the PM followed their orders.
07:08Do you also believe that the government, the state government in the state of Karnataka
07:11should have first made sure that an investigation takes place before believing the person
07:16because the SIT now is clearly pointing towards the fact that all these things
07:20that the so-called whistleblower was speaking about, they were all false?
07:23Don't you think so?
07:26When anybody makes an allegation, more so such a big nature,
07:31don't you think the police is supposed to conduct basic investigation,
07:34preliminary investigation and inquiry,
07:36and find out the veracity of the claims being made?
07:39And just because he made some large claims saying that hundreds of women were bullied,
07:45it might have been shocking to hear,
07:47but the police should not have carried away by the numbers being stated by the complainant.
07:53But instead, they should have gone to the inquiry and then decided what is the next way forward,
07:59which they did not follow.
08:01I repeat, this was done only to break the fate of Hindu devotees.
08:08They want to malign the Hindu devotees.
08:11They want to malign the pilgrimage sites.
08:13The Hindus visit in large numbers.
08:15And this toolkit now has been exposed.
08:20Right.
08:20Mr. Prasens, you are speaking about Hindu devotees.
08:23So, do you also believe,
08:24and this is the question that I was asking earlier also,
08:26that do you believe that this is religious in nature,
08:29these kind of allegations which have been made against a Hindu site?
08:32It is definitely a bit to malign the Hindu devotees and the Hindu devotees.
08:38What else explains this attitude of the government and the police now?
08:44When somebody makes a claim,
08:46immediately the police accept that as the government.
08:50And they go ahead, form SIPs,
08:52and in record time, carry out investigations.
08:55Had they shown this sort of,
08:58what do you say,
09:00eagerness towards government and administration,
09:04Karnataka would have been definitely a better place
09:06in the last two years,
09:07which they have not done.
09:09This is only for their political mileage.
09:11And this is the leftist toolkit,
09:14which is anti-Bharat,
09:16anti-Sanathana Dharma,
09:17anti-Hindus.
09:19Right. Thank you.
09:21GS Prasens,
09:21who is PGP Karnataka spokesperson,
09:23pointing fingers and saying that
09:24the government should have done a thorough investigation
09:26before believing an iota of what
09:29the alleged whistleblower has been speaking about.
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