Bengaluru: After nearly a month of excavations and other inquiries, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing allegations of mass burials in Karnataka’s Dharmasthala is yet to find any credible evidence to substantiate a former temple worker’s claims of murder, rape and torture victims having been secretly buried there, ThePrint has learnt.
According to people directly aware of the probe, the startling claims and so-called evidence submitted before the authorities by the former sanitation worker have “failed” to support the allegations so far.
“The human skeletal remains he presented before the court were that of a male. The other skeletal remains we found during excavation and near the identified sites, are that of males. He had claimed that the remains which he exhumed before approaching the police, were that of a woman who was supposedly a victim of sexual assault, torture and murder,” said one senior police officer, requesting anonymity.
This comes as the SIT nears completion of its excavations at all 13 sites that the complainant identified as spots where he was coerced into burying, burning or disposing of bodies.
In his complaint on July 4, the former temple worker said that he was forced into disposing of “hundreds” of bodies, most of which were of women and bore signs of sexual assault, murder and torture, by people “connected to the Dharmasthala temple administration and other staff members” between 1995 and 2024.
The allegation sent shockwaves as it pointed towards one of the most powerful, wealthy and politically influential families in the state—that of Rajya Sabha MP Veerendra Heggade, who is the chief administrator (Dharmadhikari) of the Dharmasthala temple.
The issue fuelled significant tensions in Dharmasthala, one of the holiest Hindu pilgrimage sites, as some of these allegations were construed—and projected—as an attack on faith rather than just the powerful family that runs the temple.
Now the police claim that they just have two additional spots to check.
“He specifically mentioned five cases in his statement before the Belthangady court. We have examined three of them (which were among the 13) but found nothing. Now only two of these are remaining,” the officer cited above said.
The lack of progress in the ongoing case has prompted the BJP to target the Siddaramaiah-led government over the “smear campaign” being carried out against Dharmasthala.
Among those questioning the allegations, is Siddaramaiah’s deputy, D.K. Shivakumar. The deputy CM of Karnataka is an ardent follower of Dharmasthala and its patrons.
Also Read: The dead speak in Dharmasthala. Sinister story behind temple town’s mass graves, unearthed
‘I’m only human’
The complainant is currently under witness protection. On Thursday, he spoke to India Today, reiterating what he wrote in his police complaint. He also claimed that no bodies have been found yet in the places he identified because in several of the locations, the earth had moved either due to natural reasons or infrastructure work.
“The machine itself could not detect it. I am only human,” he said.
The SIT brought in a Ground Penetration Radar (GPR) to survey spot number 13 where the complainant claimed he had buried around 70-80 bodies.
According to information accessed by ThePrint, the SIT has dug nearly 40/20 feet in this spot but has found nothing yet.
ThePrint had earlier cited a police officer stating that the SIT’s mandate was not to dig up bodies but to investigate the claims of murder, rape and torture and go after those cases only.
But people aware of the developments in the investigation say the complainant has been questioned only for two days and his aides or colleagues—who were also allegedly tasked with burying bodies—are yet to be probed to ascertain if the former sanitation worker’s claims are genuine.
The complainant said that he, along with 5-6 others, also employed by the temple, were tasked with burying and disposing of bodies.
He further claimed that the information wing of the temple used to tell them where the bodies were and he, along with his associates, would bury them wherever they were found or in the nearby hills and forest areas.
On how he was able to tell if the person was sexually assaulted, murdered or tortured, the complainant said that there were “some marks on the bodies”.
“I did not identify (them as sexually assaulted) but it appeared like that to me. Only a doctor can do that, I cannot do that,” he said.
In his complaint, he had also mentioned a 13-year-old girl who he suspected was sexually assaulted. But nothing was found in the spot where he supposedly buried her.
He added that he came back “to atone for his sins” as he was having nightmares about the skeletons. “I came to show these spots and get some good karma….it would also give some closure to the bodies that were buried without any proper rituals,” he said.
He further claimed that no one came looking for the victims since none of it these deaths were reported in the papers or any other mediums.
‘No record of Ananya’
In July, soon after the former temple worker made his allegations in court, 60-year-old Sujata Bhat filed a police complaint that her daughter Ananya (20), a first-year MBBS student at Manipal (Manipal is a group of colleges owned by the same group), went with her friends to Dharmasthala in 2003 and never came back. Bhat says her friends looked for her but were not able to trace her.
“All I want is to find my daughter’s remains and give her a proper burial by performing all the rituals. I have not said anything else about anyone,” she had earlier told ThePrint.
Back in 2003, it took two days for Sujata—who said she was working as a stenographer with the CBI in Kolkata at the time—to reach Dharmasthala by train.
Repeated attempts to file a complaint were turned down, with the police dismissing her saying Ananya must have eloped, Sujata had told ThePrint. “I then went to Dharmadhikari (Heggade) and asked him for help. He too dismissed me, saying that he can’t keep track of the thousands of visitors each day. He too said that my daughter may have eloped.”
Helpless, she said she left and sat by a building when three people approached her. They took her with them on the pretext that they knew where Ananya was, she claimed. Sujata was locked up with her hands tied. The next morning, around 5.30 am, she was allegedly warned to leave the place if she wanted to live. All she remembers was a heavy blow to her head when she refused.
Sujata said she woke up from a coma three months later. When she returned to home near Mangaluru, it was broken into, all documents and photographs were missing, and the place burnt.
But people familiar with the investigation said there was no record of Ananya Bhat having studied in Manipal in the time period mentioned by Sujata.
“There is no record of Sujata Bhat having worked in the CBI in Kolkata as well,” a police officer said.
Sujata’s is the only missing persons case which could have possibly been connected with the mass burials case.
Then there are also other cases of Vedavali (1979), Padmalatha (1986), Sowjanya (2012) and several others, whose families also suspect that their daughters’ deaths or disappearance have something to do with Dharmasthala.
Earlier this week, the family of Padmalatha, a 17-year-old who was kidnapped and murdered in Dharmasthala 38 years ago, approached the SIT to reopen the unsolved case.
Indrawathi, Padmalatha’s sister, wrote to the SIT, asking them to exhume her sister’s remains which she said would provide vital evidence that the 17-year-old was sexually assaulted before she was killed.
Politics over Dharmasthala
On Thursday, Shivakumar alleged that there was a “massive conspiracy” going on to tarnish the name of the temple.
There have been no allegations against the temple but its patrons have equated themselves with Lord Manjunatha, projecting that any accusation against the family is an attack on the faith itself.
“I believe in Dharmasthala and its administrative board,” Shivakumar told the legislative assembly earlier this week. He was responding to allegations by the Opposition that the Congress was facilitating the smear campaign.
“Why would the Congress party intervene in this? Don’t drag the Congress high command into this. The Dharmadhikari of Dharmasthala have been doing yeoman service, we have no doubt about it. Someone has alleged crimes due to an internal feud. When many complaints have come, the home minister or the government can’t ignore them. We believe in the holiness of Dharmasthala more than you,” he said.
Meanwhile, the BJP plans to get a convoy of hundreds of cars to head to Dharmasthala as a show of strength for the temple town.
Ashoka, Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka assembly, has demanded that the identity of the “masked man” must be revealed, referring to the former sanitation worker.
“The government must reveal the name of the masked man who is instructing to dig the ground in Dharmasthala. The SIT should not be disbanded but continued. Additionally, to detect those conspiring behind this, the matter should be handed over to the NIA for investigation,” Ashoka said Thursday.
“If it’s about delivering justice in the Dharmasthala Sowjanya rape case, we all will support it. But under that pretext, Manjunatha Swami is being insulted. Earlier, they tried to drown Tirupati. Later, they attempted to destroy Sabarimala and Shani Shingnapur temples,” he said.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)