31-07-2025
Remains are found at 'mass burial site' amid fears hundreds of girls and women were raped and murdered at Indian holy site
The first human remains have been found in an investigation into the alleged secret burial of hundreds of women and girls, many showing signs of sexual assault, over two decades in the holy Indian town of Dharmasthala.
In July, a former sanitation worker at the 800-year-old Dharmasthala Temple returned to the quiet town in southern India to make a startling confession to the police.
He claimed that between 1998 and 2014, he was forced to secretly dispose of hundreds of bodies of women and minors, many of which showed signs of brutal violence and sexual assault, in unmarked and random sites around the sacred town in the Karnataka state.
According to the whistleblower's complaint, he worked for the revered temple under duress for nearly 20 years before fleeing into hiding with his family in 2014.
Provoked by guilt and shame, he re-surfaced over a decade later to demand the exhumation of the hundreds of corpses who he alleged were systematically abused and murdered, and who he was told to secretly dispose of.
On Thursday, a special investigation team uncovered the first skeletal remains in an exhumation of one of 15 suspected locations linked to mass burials identified by the former sanitation worker.
The 'partial skeleton' was located at the one of the sites along the banks of the Netravati river - where seven other mass graves are said to be.
Sources reported that the human remains were in a 'highly decayed state', according to India Today.
The whistleblower's complaint has shone a light on hundreds of cases of women and girls who were reported missing or found dead around Dharmasthala over the years, but whose situations were not properly investigated by the police.
'Here is the individual who says that it is not the fear of law but the fear of conscience and fear for morality that has brought him back,' the sanitation worker's lawyer, KV Dhananjay, told the Independent.
'In the last 100 years of court judgments, you don't find a parallel.'
Earlier in July, the former sanitation worker appeared before a Belthangady court, garbed in a black hood to withhold his identity, where he presented skeletal remains that he claimed were taken from one of the mass grave sites of sexual assault victims.
The town of Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada is a major Hindu pilgrimage site, with the Dharmasthala Temple attracting around 2,000 visitors per day.
The whistleblower, from the Dalit community, the lowest rung of the caste system, described in his police complaint how he would find corpses washed up on the riverbank. At first, he assumed the deaths were by suicide, but he soon noticed that most of the bodies were women, many were in states of undress and some showed signs of violence.
It wasn't until 1998 that he was first asked to 'secretly dispose of the bodies', he claimed, adding that when he refused, he was physically attacked.
Protesters demonstrate on July 21, demanding a reinvestigation into the rape and murder case of Sowjanya, a 17-year-old girl who died near Snanaghatta in Dharmastala in 2012
The first human remains have been found in an investigation into the alleged secret burial of hundreds of women and girls over two decades in the holy Indian town of Dharmasthala
'We will cut you into pieces. Your body will also be buried like the other corpses. We will sacrifice all your family members,' he alleged he was told.
He escaped the town in 2014, after 'the mental torture I was experiencing became unbearable'. He and his family fled to a neighbouring state and went into hiding for fear of their safety.
On July 15, a 60-year-old Bengaluru woman submitted a petition to the police, demanding officials find the 'skeletal remains' of her daughter who went missing in 2003 when she visited the temple town of Dharmasthala with her friends.
A week later, a group of women marched towards the temple in protest, demanding justice for 17-year-old Sowjanya, a college student from Belthangady who was reportedly raped and murdered in Dharmasthala in 2012 but whose killer was never found.
The investigation is expected to continue as more alleged mass grave sites throughout the holy town are exhumed in the coming weeks and days.
Current reports suggest the remains discovered today are most likely of a male.
According to the whistleblower, impoverished men were also murdered in the town and similarly buried.
In a statement from on Sunday 20 July, the temple authorities said they endorse a 'fair and transparent' investigation.
'Truth and belief form the foundation of a society's ethics and values. We sincerely hope and strongly urge the Special Investigation Team to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation and bring the true facts to light,' said K Parshwanath Jain, the official spokesperson for Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala.
