Dharmasthala – Over a month ago, on July 3, a former sanitation worker of the Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara temple, a revered 800-year-old pilgrimage site in Dakshina Kannada, filed a formal complaint to the district SP, revealing deeply disturbing claims.
In a six-page letter, written in Kannada, he alleged that between 1995 and 2014, he was forced to bury hundreds of bodies, many of whom, he claimed, were minor girls subjected to sexual assault before being killed. He said he remained silent out of fear for his life, but was now driven by guilt to come forward—11 years after fleeing Dharmasthala.
Although the allegations gained widespread attention online and internationally, mainstream Kannada media offered minimal coverage, despite Dharmasthala’s history of unresolved murders and disappearances dating back to 1987.
Amid rising public pressure and scattered reports from independent journalists and YouTubers, the Karnataka government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on July 19, led by DGP Pranab Mohanty. Based on the whistleblower’s input, 13 suspected burial sites were marked, and exhumations began on July 29. As of August 4, 11 sites have been dug, yielding a partial skeleton, bone fragments, and even a PAN card belonging to a man allegedly deceased in 2025.
The probe has led to more families coming forward, including Soujanya’s parents and Ananya Bhat’s mother, both seeking justice after years of silence. Calls are mounting for a national-level investigation.
The SIT findings have reignited concerns over police inaction, with reports confirming that 15 years of unidentified death records were deleted at the local police station.