A former sanitation worker from Dharmasthala village in Dakshina Kannada district has alleged he was coerced into disposing of numerous murder victims—many reportedly women subjected to sexual assault—over 16 years.
In a complaint submitted on July 3 to the Superintendent of Police in Mangaluru and Dharmasthala Police Station, the man—who has requested anonymity due to threats—claimed he witnessed some killings and was forced under duress to bury or burn bodies between 1998 and 2014.
According to his account, he began as a cleaner for the Dharmasthala temple administration in 1995, eventually encountering frequent corpses, many of which bore evidence of violence or sexual abuse. “I was threatened that I’d be chopped to pieces and buried like the others,” he wrote.
When he resisted, he was allegedly assaulted and warned his predecessor had “disappeared” for objecting. The complaint describes bodies buried in multiple locations or burned with diesel, with the total number allegedly in the hundreds.
He said he fled Dharmasthala in December 2014 after a girl in his family was sexually assaulted by someone tied to his superiors. In hiding ever since, he recently revisited a burial site, exhumed remains, and submitted them with photographs and ID documents.
He has agreed to identify graves and perpetrators but asked for protection under the Witness Protection Act before disclosing names. Police confirmed the complaint, registered a case, and stated they would seek court approval to exhume sites while safeguarding his identity