What is the Dharmasthala mass-burial case?

India Today

Allegations of the bodies of hundreds of women who were raped and murdered over the years being buried in the popular pilgrimage town of Dharmasthala in Karnataka have shocked people.

Transcript

00:00That's Sujata, the mother of Ananya Bhatt, a young medical student who went missing in

00:092003 during a visit to Karnataka's sacred temple town, Dharmastala.

00:14This town is known for its blend of Shaiva, Vaishnava, ancient traditions and the revered

00:18Shri Manjunatha temple.

00:20But two decades later, Sujata was back, not for closure, but for answers.

00:24It all began when a sanitation worker, his face fully covered, except for a narrow strip

00:28over his eyes, appeared before a Beratangadi magistrate on July 16, 2025, with police protection

00:34and a skeleton in hand.

00:36He claimed he had been forced to dig mass graves, sites where bodies of women and children were

00:41dumped after alleged sexual assault and murder.

00:43They threatened to kill me too if I didn't dig the graves.

00:46I just want to sleep peacefully for one night.

00:49He urged the court to inspect the sites along with banks of the Netravati river and other

00:53remote patches where the soil was soft enough to ensure quick decomposition.

00:57The whistleblower's allegations have opened a can of worms, reviving several cold cases

01:02like that of Ananya.

01:03In 2003, Sujata, then a CBS stenographer posted in Kolkata, had rushed to Dharmastala with her

01:09daughter's photograph.

01:10Locals had seen her.

01:12But when Sujata tried filing a police complaint, no one responded.

01:15She even approached Dharmastala trust head Virendra Haigade but says he refused to help.

01:20For years, Sujata had no support, but now after the sanitation worker's explosive testimony,

01:31she returned with legal counsel and friends, hoping to finally locate her daughter's remains.

01:36On July 4, in his letters, the worker claimed that from 1998 to 2014, he was cursed into disposing

01:42of over 100 bodies, many of whom showed signs of brutal assault.

01:46He described one case from 2010.

01:48A schoolgirl, aged between 12 and 13, buried near a patrol bunk in Kaleri.

01:53Her body, still in uniform but missing her inner wear, showed signs of sexual assault and

01:58strangulation as reported by the New Indian Express.

02:01Another chilling account involved a 20-year-old woman whose face was burned with acid, her body

02:06wrapped in newspaper and doused in diesel before being set on fire.

02:10These allegations struck a haunting similarity to the Sujanya case, the 17-year-old girl who

02:14went missing in 2012 and was found murdered the next day, her hands tied to a tree.

02:19Despite CID and CBI probes, no one was convicted.

02:22The only accused, Santosh Rao, was acquitted in June 2023.

02:27Activists have long alleged fabricated evidence missing CCTV footage and a systemic cover-up.

02:32One of the buildings with deleted footage, they say, was owned by the temple.

02:35The whistleblower said he finally quit in 2014 after his own relatives were assaulted by

02:40men linked to the temple.

02:41It's been 15 days since the FIR, but the Dakshina Kannada police have yet to begin the

02:46exhumations.

02:47So, who's stalling the investigation and more importantly, who are they protecting?

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