Skull unearthed; exhumation work ends

A skull and some bones were unearthed today as the curtains came down on the week-long operations to exhume bodies of persons killed allegedly as human sacrifice by granite quarry owners and buried at a site in a nearby village.
A skull and four bones were found today, taking the total number of skeletons recovered to eight since September 13 when the digging operations began at the burial ground in E Malampatti village on the orders of IAS officer U Sagayam, probing "illegal" granite quarrying in this district.
DSP Mangaleswaran said the digging operations ended at 4 pm today and the skeletons would be sent for forensic examination.

Sagayam, appointed by Madras High Court as Legal Commissioner to probe illegal quarrying, ordered digging of the sites on a complaint that mentally challenged persons had been given as "human sacrifice" in one of the granite quarries in 2011 and buried at the site.
The complaint was given by a driver who had worked with PRP Granite Exports.
A case was registered by police on the instructions of Sagayam and the company owner P R Palanisamy and three others were questioned in this connection last week.