Dharmasthala ‘mask man’: Ex-wife makes stunning claims about his early years, life
(File image) Security personnel with the whistleblower, in mask, near a site of an alleged burial related to the Dharmasthala mass burial case | PTI
A day after his arrest, the ex-wife of the Dharmasthala masked man, aka Chinnaiah, has claimed that the latter was a serial liar, who abused her throughout the marriage. The woman, whose identity has not been revealed, told a local newspaper that Chinnaiah was acting for someone else.
Chinnaiah lived in Mandya for years before moving to Dharmasthala along with his brother, his ex-wife told Kannada Prabha on Saturday.
She said his parents were respected in the village at Mandya, but Chinnaiah was “lazy” and married at a young age. He left the village in 1994, accompanying his brother to Dharmasthala. He returned to Mandya in 2014 and lived there for a year. However, he soon entered into a dispute with the local body authorities, following which he left again.
The first wife of Chinnaiah, who hails from Nagamangala, added: “I married him 25 years ago. We have a son and a daughter. After marriage, he took me to Dharmasthala. There, Veerendra Heggade gave us a house. He gave me a job as a cleaning staff at the Netravati bathing ghat for a salary of Rs. 3,000.”
“We suspect that he is doing this for money. When we visited Dharmasthala, he used to take us inside the temple,” the woman said, adding that Chinnaiah was “acting on someone's instructions.”
“After I divorced him, I came to know that he had married twice. One wife was a resident of Bannari, Sathyamangalam,” she said.
Also read: Why did Dharmasthala ‘mask man’ lie about temple? Received training in Bengaluru, got paid after Tamil Nadu meeting, SIT told
Medical test today
The Special Investigation Team will begin the interrogation of Chinnaiah will continue on Sunday too. The interrogation will be held at the SIT police station in Belthangady. He will later be taken for medical examination.
Meanwhile, devotees are now taking out a procession in the wake of the arrest, hailing the police move and urging authorities to expose the conspiracy to defame Dharmasthala. The BJP leaders have held a Dharmasthala Chalo Yatra while the Congress is planning one.
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