With a former sanitation worker claiming to have buried many bodies in Dharmastala, about 80 kilometres from Mangaluru in coastal Karnataka, discussions on the “mysterious deaths” of people in the temple town have gained traction yet again.
After some dithering, the State government on July 19 set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Director General of Police (Internal Security) Pronab Mohanty, to investigate the claims of the sanitation worker.
The complainant claimed to have worked in Dharmastala between 1995 and 2014. He said that during his service period, he buried men and women and also minors who had been raped and murdered. He said that there were “powerful people” behind the crimes who had coerced him to bury the bodies. He claimed that he fled the place along with his family members when a member of his own family was sexually assaulted. The worker said that he had chosen to tell the story now out of sheer remorse. He also asked that more than 100 bodies he buried be exhumed, identified, and given a decent farewell.
Accusing the jurisdictional police of delay in initiating the process of exhuming the bodies, advocates representing the sanitation worker, activists, and public intellectuals, including former Supreme Court Judge V. Gopala Gowda, urged the government to set up the SIT.
There has been chatter about “mysterious deaths” in Dharmastala for more than five decades. Some even contended that many of the dead were devotees who ended their lives in the hope of “reaching heaven”.
Outrage over the deaths grew louder in October 2012 after a second year pre-university student, Soujanya, was abducted, raped, and murdered. The fury transformed into a movement seeking justice for Soujanya. In parallel, temple authorities also held demonstrations to rule out their involvement in Soujanya’s murder or in any of the earlier deaths.
Protesters also demanded a separate police station in Dharmastala. Surprisingly, the temple town did not have one despite a substantial population of its own along with a floating crowd of pilgrims.
The State government handed over investigation of the murder to the Criminal Investigation Department and then to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in November 2013, and set up a Dharmastala police station in 2016.
On June 16, 2023, the special CBI court in Bengaluru acquitted Santosh Rao, the lone accused in the Soujanya murder case. Earlier, based on a plea by Soujanya’s parents, the court conducted an inquiry into allegations against three persons associated with the temple in the abduction, rape, and murder of Soujanya. It found no substance in the allegations. The CBI court concluded that the preliminary investigation had been shoddy and directed the State Acquittal Committee to initiate action against erring police officers and the official who conducted the post-mortem.
Soujanya’s parents and Rao filed separate appeals before the Karnataka High Court seeking de novo/reinvestigation of the case. Turning down the plea for reinvestigation, the Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court, on August 30, 2024, said that it was “doubtful that evidence that could not be collected at the golden hour is still available.” Also pointing to the bungled initial investigation, the Court directed the State government to expedite the process of taking action against erring officers, and said Rao was at liberty to initiate independent action for compensation.
Soujanya’s mother, uncle, and activists continue to demand that the government do all it can to trace the real culprits. They created a WhatsApp group where members have been asked to keep up the demand to trace the real accused in the murder case.
A few days after the sanitation worker registered his complaint in the Dharmastala police station, Sujatha Bhat, a former CBI employee and the mother of Ananya Bhat, a medical student who went missing in 2004 in Dharmstala, approached the police. She sought their help in finding out whether Ananya’s body was among those allegedly buried by the sanitation worker. If she finds her daughter’s remains, she will finally be able to conduct the last rites, she told Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police K. Arun.
All eyes are now on the SIT to provide the answers to the “mysterious deaths” in Dharmastala.
