A file photo of activist Mahesh Shetty Thimarody being taken for a health check-up after his arrest in Brahmavar.
The Dakshina Kannada district administration has passed an order externing activist Mahesh Shetty Thimarody to Raichur district for one year, acting on a report of the district police.
Puttur Assistant Commissioner Stella Verghese passed the order on September 18 on the report of Deputy Superintendent of Police, Bantwal, the police said.
In the report to Puttur Assistant Commissioner, the Dy. SP referred to cases booked against Mr. Thimarody and expressed the need to extern him “in order to maintain law and order in the district.”
Mr. Thimarody has been spearheading the campaign seeking justice for the 2012 rape-and-murder victim Soujanya. It was in the houses of Mr. Thimarody and his brother that 45-year-old Chinnaiah, the complainant in the alleged case of mass burial of bodies, had stayed days before he was arrested by the Special Investigation Team on August 23.
Externment proceedings
Thimarody was among the 36 persons in the district against whom the police had initiated externment proceedings to maintain communal harmony in June this year. He was facing 20 criminal cases. During the pendency of the proceedings, six more cases were registered against him after the alleged mass burial case was handed over to a Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The latest cases include alleged assault on a television channel reporter near a Belthangady private hospital along with another activist Girish Mattannavar; unlawful assembly in front of the hospital and obstruction to Brahmavar police when they arrived to secure him from his house.
‘Arms found’
During the search of the houses of Thimarody and his brother on August 26, the SIT seized 44 articles, including mobile phones of Chinnaiah, laptops containing over 25 videos of Chinnaiah’s interactions with media channels and YouTube channels, two swords, and a gun. On the SIT’s complaint, the Belthangady police booked a case under the Arms Act against Thimarody on September 16.
He had remained at large after this case was booked and did not respond to Belthangady police notice to appear for inquiry.
As he was allegedly involved in fresh cases even as the externment proceedings were on, the AC passed immediate orders to extern him, the police said.
Published – September 23, 2025 08:13 pm IST