The Special Investigation Team (SIT) has issued notice to YouTuber Abdul Munaf, a resident of Kozhikode in Kerala, to record his statement regarding his filming of extraction of skeletal remains, which complainant produced before the court in Belthangady few days after registration of complaint on July 3.
Mr. Munaf is the owner of the company related to the lorry that was swept away in a landslide near Ankola in Uttara Kannada district in July 2024. He had filmed the act of exhumation of 45-year-old complainant and posted it on his YouTube channel.
As part of inquiry related the skeletal remains produced by the complainant at the time of recording of his sworn statement before the court, the SIT has issued notice to Mr. Munaf. The SIT has already examined another YouTuber Abhishek. It has also examined activist T. Jayanth in whose house complainant stayed in Bengaluru before going to New Delhi and then coming to Dharmastala with the skeletal remains.
On Friday, the SIT examined another activist Girish Mattannavar. The SIT sources said they trying to find from where, when and how the first skeletal remains was exhumed.
The custody of 45-year-old complainant with the SIT ended on Friday. He will be produced before the court on September 6. The SIT arrested him on August 23 for perjury after reports of the skeletal remains produced in the court showed that it was of a male.
The SIT was awaiting reports from the Forensic Science Laboratory about the partial skeletal remains found in site No. 6 and of soil samples collected from 17 sites that were exhumed.
Meanwhile, Belthangady police registered the complaint of Kusumavati, mother of Soujanya, who was raped and murdered in October 2012, seeking action against few YouTubers and social media influencers for defamatory content posted about her in the social media.
Published – September 05, 2025 10:36 pm IST
