Bellie Thomas Shocking mass grave claims trigger SIT probe in Karnataka’s temple town Dharmasthala.
Bengaluru: The story unfolding around a revered temple town in Karnataka—Dharmasthala—has taken a dark and deeply disturbing turn recently after a whistleblower, a former sanitation worker earlier employed with the temple administration, claimed that he was coerced and forced to bury and burn hundreds of bodies without reporting to the police—bodies including those of women and minor girls, many showing signs of sexual assault and violence.
The whistleblower, a Dalit man, stated in his submission before a court that he had been forced to bury and burn human bodies between 1995 and 2014 under threats from powerful individuals—some allegedly linked to the temple administration.
On 3 July, covered in a black robe from head to toe, the whistleblower arrived at a local court in Belthangady accompanied by a battery of advocates to make his voluntary statement before the judge. The advocates were seen carrying a box presumed to contain documents, but it was later revealed in court that the whistleblower had brought a human skeleton, which he had personally dug up—one of the bodies he had buried long ago—to establish the truth of his claims.
He also submitted photographic evidence of the skeleton and the excavation site in Dharmasthala.
Based on the whistleblower’s complaint, an FIR was registered at the Dharmasthala police station under Section 211(a) of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. He was granted protection under the Witness Protection Scheme, 2018. The whistleblower also consented to undergo a narco-analysis test if investigators so desired. The Dakshina Kannada district police have moved the court to conduct such a test.
On 15 July 2025, the case took a grave and specific turn after Sujatha Bhat, a former CBI stenographer, filed a formal police complaint regarding the 2003 disappearance of her daughter, Ananya Bhat—a first-year MBBS student at Kasturba Medical College and Hospital in Manipal, Udupi district. Ananya had come to visit the Dharmasthala temple with fellow classmates and hostel mates when she mysteriously went missing.
Sujatha Bhat’s complaint contained direct and serious allegations against the temple’s chieftain and his brother. She alleged that when she sought their help in 2003, they verbally abused her and dismissed her pleas. She further claimed that temple staff subsequently abducted, illegally confined, and violently assaulted her, leading to a three-month comatose state.
She said she was compelled to come forward after seeing media reports and YouTube coverage about the whistleblower’s FIR. She firmly believes that the former sanitation worker may have buried Ananya and might possess crucial information about her disappearance.
