Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi 

Udupi, Nov 2: Police have issued a statement on Fr Mahesh D’Souza death case on Saturday, November 2. 

The statement was issued late night after the protests took place at Shirva church by a group of parishioners who had gathered in large numbers. 

The police statement says that Augustine B V , uncle of Fr Mahesh D’Souza, had lodged a police complaint that his nephew Fr Mahesh D’Souza, principal of Don Bosco School, Shirva, had allegedly committed suicide between 9.30 pm of October 11, 2019 and 1.00 am of October 12, 2019 by hanging at the principal’s office of Don Bosco School. As there were no signs of any injury marks on the body, a case of unnatural death was registered at Shirva police station.

Fr Mahesh D’Souza 

On October 12, necessary investigations began and the body was sent to forensic department of KMC Hospital Manipal and after postmortem, it was handed over to the family of the deceased and the funeral took place on October 15. 

As per investigations so far, it is established that Fr Mahesh D’Souza committed suicide for personal reasons and there is no reason to believe that it was a murder or any other persons were responsible for the suicide. 

The parts of body have been sent to concerned labs for viscera test and a final report will be submitted as soon the reports from concerned labs come. 

A gathering of people demanded action on October 12 at the Shirva church premises in a conversation with parish priest Fr Denis D’Sa and the police took necessary measures to avert any untoward incident. Any person who spreads wrong information regarding the case will be dealt with sternly, says the statement. 

Another report says that Udupi cyber crime police have tracked 73 WhatsApp groups which transmitted messages relating to the incident. More details on this are awaited.