Ananya Bhat, A 1st-Year MBBS Student May Be A Victim In Dharmasthala Mass-Burial Case; Family Seeks SIT Probe
After 22 years, when Ananya Bhat, a first-year MBBS student, went missing in 2003 during a college trip to Dharmasthala, a ray of hope rose for her family looking for justice for their daughter. Ananya’s 60-year-old mother, Sujatha, a former stenographer with the CBI, lodged a fresh complaint at the Dharmasthala Police Station on July 15.
Sujatha’s plea has added urgency to the growing demand for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into the alleged Dharmasthala mass burials, after a former sanitation worker of the Dharmasthala temple filed an explosive complaint on July 3 with the Dharmasthala police.
The horrific case of mass burial, where more than 100 women, including students, were raped, murdered, and buried, has emerged in Dharmasthala, Karnataka. In the complaint filed with the police, the former sanitation worker has reported accompanying photo evidence of skeletal remains, that many of the female bodies were without clothes or underwear. Some bore signs of sexual assault and violence, including wounds or strangulation that indicated violence.
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The sanitation worker, from a Dalit community, has worked for the Dharmasthala temple administration from 1995 to 2014. In the letter, he alleged that for nearly two decades, he was forced to bury or burn the bodies of numerous victims, many of them women and minors, having signs of sexual assault and brutal violence.
According to the whistleblower, he was silent as the Lord Manjunatha shrine, which is at the heart of the Dharmasthala town, is managed by an influential family, and some of the perpetrators were linked to the temple administration. The sanitation worker mentioned in the complaint that he was threatened with death. “We will cut you into pieces, your body will be buried like the rest”, he was told by the supervisors.
The whistleblower claimed to have buried some of the bodies on the banks of the holy Netravathi River, to ensure quick decomposition of the bodies.
In one heartwrenching detail, the sanitation worker said that he was forced to bury a schoolgirl, aged between 12 to 15, in 2010 near a petrol bunk in Kalleri. The girl’s body was in uniform, with the skirt and innerwear missing, showing marks of sexual assault. Another incident where the face of a 20-year-old girl was burnt with Acid and her body was wrapped in newspaper.
The sanitation worker said to flee Dharmasthala in December 2014, after a minor girl in his own family was allegedly sexually assaulted by the same people. Now, he returned, risking his life, driven by a deep sense of guilt and determination to seek justice.
Karnataka CM Siddaramiah on Friday said that the Karnataka government would consider formin a SIT on the recmmendation by the police. He emphasised that the state government would act strictly following law and is not under any external influence.
