Dharmasthala Mass Burial: Whistleblower Arrested, Woman Says Missing Daughter Story Was Fake (Image: X/ RitamAppKannada)
In a dramatic twist to the ongoing Dharmasthala mass burial case, the key whistleblower has been arrested for allegedly misleading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Karnataka police. At the same time, the woman who initially reported a missing daughter has now admitted that her story was fabricated.
The former sanitation worker with the Dharmasthala temple administration, who had previously claimed to have buried 70–80 bodies at multiple locations, was taken into custody after being questioned overnight until 6 am on Saturday, according to the reports.
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Police investigations revealed that the skull initially presented by the whistleblower was fake, prompting his arrest on charges of perjury and furnishing false evidence. Out of the 15 alleged burial sites reported by the complainant, only skeletal remains of a single male were recovered at spot number six.
When questioned about the discrepancy, the whistleblower claimed that other burial sites might have been lost due to erosion, forest growth, or construction work, and insisted that residents had observed burials during the day but did not intervene. Denying attempts to malign the temple, “What will I gain by tarnishing the temple’s name? I am a Hindu, from a Scheduled Caste,” he told India Today.
He is scheduled to be produced before a magistrate later today, following a routine medical check-up at a local hospital.
The case also saw a reversal from Sujatha Bhat, who had earlier claimed that her daughter, Ananya Bhat, an 18-year-old medical student, went missing in Dharmasthala in 2003.
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In a video interview, Sujatha admitted: “It is not true. There was never any daughter named Ananya Bhat. The photograph shared was also fake.” She explained that activists Girish Mattannavar and T Jayanti had persuaded her to make the claim, allegedly linked to a dispute over her grandfather’s land, which she alleged was taken over by the Dharmasthala temple authorities. Sujatha clarified that no money was involved: “Nobody gave me money, and I never asked for it. My only question was how my grandfather’s land was given away without my signature.”
It has now come to light that Sujatha Bhat, who had earlier claimed to be the mother of a fictitious person named Ananya Bhat and alleged that her daughter was subjected to abuse and murder in Dharmasthala, has admitted that her statements were false. She revealed that she was… pic.twitter.com/YyeKu3KCaJ
— Girish Bharadwaj (@Girishvhp) August 22, 2025
Sujatha apologised publicly, asking for forgiveness from the people of Karnataka and devotees of Dharmasthala: “Yes, I lied. I ask the people of this state and the whole country to forgive me. I never did this for money.”
Her retraction directly contradicts her earlier statement to investigators, in which she had alleged that she was abducted, assaulted, and left in a coma for a month while trying to investigate her daughter’s disappearance.
