Sowjanya rape-murder: Case that first sparked Dharmasthala outrage 13 years ago

India Today

23-07-2025

"Sowjanya's power has turned divine. The power of a minor who was brutally raped and murdered is now exposing the horrors that have happened in Dharmasthala", former RSS and Hindu Jagarana Vedike activist Mahesh Shetty Timarody told India Today Digital. Timarody is seeking justice for the alleged victims of Dharmasthala, and his remarks came even as a Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigates the allegations of young women being sexually assaulted and murdered and being buried in different parts of the popular temple town in Karnataka.advertisementThe SIT was formed after a whistleblower, who claims to be a former sanitation worker employed by the temple trust, alleged that he was forced over the years to burn and bury the bodies of women, including students, who were raped and murdered. Several activists, lawyers, and the state commission for women also demanded a thorough investigation. Some of the alleged perpetrators of the crime are related to the temple trust, they say.The sanitation worker appeared in court under heavy police protection, his body wrapped from head to toe with only a transparent strip over the eyes to help him navigate. He had come to testify about the allegations he made, claiming he was forced to dispose of over a hundred murder victims, many of them women who, he alleged, were sexually assaulted, between 1998 and 2014.
Before the current claims brought Dharmasthala to national headlines, the first case that sparked massive protests in the temple town was the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl, Sowjanya, in 2012.However, even after over a decade and massive protests, no one has been held guilty of Sowjanya's rape and murder.Sowjanya, a pre-university student studying at Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College in Ujire.She used to live with her now-dead father, Chandappa Gowda, and mother Kusumavathi in Ujire of Dharmasthala town.It was a middle-class family, with the father working as a contractor for the Public Works Department (PWD) in Belthangady for several years, and the mother a housewife.SOWJANYA RAPE-MURDER CASE: WHAT HAPPENED IN 2012On October 09, 2012, in the evening, around 7.00 pm, the family of Sowjanya started worrying. Their daughter had not returned from college. The family started searching for Sowjanya, and a group of villagers also gathered to accompany them. It was raining extensively that day.The family claims that their daughter went missing while returning from college.In an interview with a Mangalore-based YouTube channel, Kudla Rampage, Sowjanya's mother recounted, "Sowjanya had gone to college without having any food in the morning. It was an auspicious day of Hosa Akki (the day when families have new rice). My daughter had told me I'll come and have my lunch later. I couldn't even see her last time as I was busy with the daily chores inside the kitchen."advertisementSowjanya was last spotted alighting from the government bus near the Netravati river bank around 4.00-4.15 pm, according to her maternal uncle Vittal Gowda and other locals."When Sowjanya didn't return home, I anxiously called my brother (Vittal Gowda) at 7.00 pm and asked him that did he had by any chance seen Soujanya, and she even wished him in the evening," said her mother.After searching for the missing Sowjanya in every possible place, her father filed a missing complaint at the local police station late at night. Sowjanya's family had to file the case at the Belthangady police station, which is 15 km away from Dharmasthala.Dharmasthala, even after being a very popular temple town of Karnataka with thousands of devotees visiting every day, had no police station in the town. It was after this case that a police station was set up by the Karnataka state government under pressure in Dharmasthala.The family and the police found Sowjanya's body the following day inside a forest located across a gushing stream near Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheswara Yoga and Nature Cure Hospital at Mannasanka. Sowjanya's clothes were torn, and her undergarments were missing, according to reports.advertisementThe news spread like wildfire in the village, sparking massive outrage.The police initiated an investigation to identify the perpetrator of the case.On October 12, 2012, Mallik Jain, Ashrith Jain, Ravi Poojary, Shivappa Malekudiya, and Gopalkrishna Gowda, all working under Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Temple Trust, run by D Veerendra Heggade, caught a person named Santhosh Rao from the Bahubali entry point near the temple.The person, Santhosh Rao, was beaten by the public before being handed over to the police. According to the police reports, Santhosh was spotted in the area four days before the crime. Reports suggested he might have been suffering from depression or other psychiatric issues.Rao was from Karkala town in Karnataka's Udupi District. He worked in a hotel in Karnataka's Chikkamagaluru. His father was a retired government teacher, and his mother was a retired employee of the PWD.The local Belthangady Police initially investigated the Sowjanya case, and later the case was transferred to the Crime Investigation Department (CID) within a month by the then Home Minister R Ashok.advertisementThe CID submitted a 15-page report to the state government and named Santhosh Rao as the prime accused, according to The New Indian Express. It also gave a clean chit to four accused whom Sowjanya's family had accused in the case.The CID report sparked massive outrage and protests in Dakshina Kannada district.Following an intensive public outcry, the then Siddaramaiah Government in 2013 handed over this case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which officially started the investigation in March 2014.The CBI probed the case, and after a long trial, the CBI special court in Bengaluru acquitted Santhosh Rao on June 16, 2023, due to lack of evidence.During the verdict, the court cited the failure of the prosecution to prove Rao guilty, and also highlighted significant lapses in the initial stages of investigation and evidence collection.After the verdict of the CBI special court, protests erupted and activists launched the 'Justice for Sowjanya' campaign. The activists and the family of the victim demanded the case be reinvestigated. But in 2024, the Karnataka High Court rejected the plea for a fresh investigation and said, "no purpose will be served even if reinvestigation is permitted".advertisementDespite all these years and all the developments, the big question — If not Santhosh Rao, if not the four other accused, then who raped and killed Sowjanya — remains unanswered.Sowjanya's sister, in an interview, sobbed and said, "When I see my sister's friends today, happily married and having a family, I always remember my sister and think that if she were alive today, even she would have been in the same happy situation.""In remembrance of our daughter Sowjanya, we planted a sapling in the place where her body is buried. Today, the plant has grown, nature has done its duty, but the agencies that had to get us justice have failed," Sowjanya's mother said.Sowjanya's father, Chandappa Gowda, passed away on January 19 this year after battling cancer. He fought to get justice for his daughter but died without any closure. Sowjanya's case erupted in 2012-13, and it is over a decade now that allegations that hundreds of women, raped and murdered, have been buried in Dharmasthala.- EndsTrending Reel