Mangaluru – A senior source in the Karnataka state intelligence department has revealed that an accused in the 2016 Vinayak Baliga murder case allegedly funded certain leaders of the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) to inject a communal Hindu–Muslim narrative into the ongoing Dharmasthala mass burial investigation.
Vinayak Baliga, an RTI activist, was brutally hacked to death near his Kodailbail residence on March 21, 2016. Police charged Naresh Shenoy, Shrikant, Shivaprasad, Vinit Poojary, Nishit Devadiga, Shailesh, and Manjunath Shenoy in the case.
According to intelligence sources, one of these accused provided financial support to certain SDPI leaders, enabling them to stage protests, meet activists, and create visual material that could be used to mislead the public. The same accused is said to have given the leaders a “toolkit” to execute the plan.
On August 7, SDPI leaders reportedly called Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi, a prominent leader of the Justice for Sowjanya forum, requesting a meeting. Thimarodi declined, questioning why SDPI — which has no official connection to the Dharmasthala case — would approach him during an active investigation. He later issued a warning to SDPI members “not to turn up unannounced” at his residence.
SDPI members are reported to have succeeded in meeting Kusumavathi, a figure linked to the activism surrounding the case, and taking photographs. These images were later circulated by the BJP and other groups opposed to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe, attempting to suggest that “SDPI is behind destroying Hindu faith in Dharmasthala.”
The accused in the Baliga case, who hails from Mangaluru, is now under the watch of multiple agencies, including the Counter Terrorism and Counter Radicalisation (CTCR) division of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Intelligence officials believe that if fully investigated, the case could potentially expose SDPI’s role in multiple other incidents.
Speaking to blrpost.com, Thimarodi said,
“I sensed danger when they insisted on meeting. I decided not to meet them as they always come with vested interests. The government must investigate their reasons for wanting to meet me and who is behind them. The Justice for Sowjanya case has no links with SDPI leaders, and no leader from this party should interact with Sowjanya activists.”
The State Government constituted the SIT on July 19, 2025, following a police complaint filed on July 3 by a former sanitation worker of the Dharmasthala Temple Administration. The complainant alleged that he had been forced to bury hundreds of bodies, many of which showed signs of violence.
The SIT has since been conducting an exhumation operation in Dharmasthala, recovering skeletal remains and sending them for forensic analysis. The investigation continues under high public scrutiny.
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