Mass burials at Dharmasthala point to unholy mix of religion, crime and politics in India

Mass burials at Dharmasthala point to unholy mix of religion, crime and politics in India

Mangalore Today News Network

By Kavita Chowdhury

Dharmasthala, August 13, 2025: The revelations of a whistleblower in the Hindu temple town of Dharmasthala resemble the plot of a bone-chilling horror movie with murdered men, sexually assaulted young women, and mass burials figuring in his account. The allegations threaten to tarnish Dharmasthala’s image and that of its “powerful” patrons.

Located in the southern state of Karnataka, Dharmasthala was until recently synonymous with the 800-year-old temple dedicated to the Hindu deity, Manjunatha, aka Shiva.

However, since July, Dharmasthala has gained notoriety, with the disclosures of the whistleblower going public.

The 48-year-old whistleblower was employed as a sanitation worker in the Manjunathaswamy Temple complex from 1995 to 2014, when he fled the town and went into hiding. He reappeared in July to share his horrific story with the police.

In a six-page letter, the whistleblower stated that while working at the temple complex, he was forced to bury the bodies of hundreds of men and women. He alleged that many of the women victims were raped before they were killed. He claimed he was threatened, told that his family would be harmed and he would be killed, should he speak up. “They threatened, ‘We will cut you into pieces,’ ‘Your body will be buried like the rest of the bodies,’ and ‘We will kill your entire family,’” he said in his complaint. Unable to bear the pressure anymore, he went into hiding and resurfaced 11 years later, allegedly driven by guilt.

Rumors have swirled in Dharmasthala for decades about mysterious disappearances and murders, with accusing fingers being pointed in the direction of temple administrators.

Since 1968, Veerendra Heggade has been serving as the Dharmadhikari or hereditary head of the temple. In 2022, Heggade was nominated by India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a member of the upper house of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha.

Obviously, the political ramifications of the case and the influential people connected with it have prevented a thorough probe into the matter for so long. It appears that local authorities tried to suppress the whistleblower’s revelations. A sustained public outcry forced the Karnataka government to constitute a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter.

Back in 1987, a 17-year-old was raped and murdered in Dharmasthala. The shoddy investigation that followed was further compromised by political interference.

In 2012, a similar incident unfolded when a teenager, Soujanya, was raped and murdered in Dharmasthala. Her body was discovered in a wooded area at the time. Despite public protests and a probe, the case remained unsolved for over a decade and was finally closed in 2023.

Women activists have now demanded that the SIT also reinvestigate the Soujanya case, and action be taken against the police officers who had botched up the initial investigation.

Meanwhile, the whistleblower who blew the lid off these crimes has been assured protection and secrecy as a state witness. Shrouded in black, he has been aiding the SIT in locating burial sites and exhuming the skeletons. To date, 13 spots have been identified by the complainant-witness, and 100 human bones, including a skull, were recovered from one of the sites in a forest. The other excavation spots situated around the banks of the Nethravati river, however, did not yield much, with experts pointing out that over time, heavy rains and slush would have swept away the evidence.

The formation of a specialized SIT has revived hopes in families of victims, who did not get closure hitherto. Sujatha Bhat, the mother of Ananya Bhat, a medical student who disappeared in Dharmasthala in 2003, has filed a new complaint with the police seeking to find her daughter’s skeletal remains. Speaking to the news site Al Jazeera, the 60-year-old mother said, “They told us to stop asking questions.” “Please find my daughter’s skeletal remains and allow me to perform the funeral rites with honour,” she pleaded.

What is striking in all these incidents is how, despite the swirling allegations, the mainstream Kannada media all along chose to maintain a studied silence over these incidents. The extent to which they were intimidated can be gauged from the fact that news reports remotely critical of the chief administrator Heggade were recently issued gag orders and court injunctions. In fact, last month, a lower court ordered the deletion or removal of some 8,000 online links on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and news portals, which in any way alleged involvement of the Heggade family and the temple trust.

Subsequently, the Karnataka High Court overturned the order. When the Heggade family appealed against it in the Supreme Court, the apex court on August 8 refused to ban the media from reporting it. Despite this, journalists covering the case are being threatened. Earlier this week, two YouTubers were physically assaulted by men owing allegiance to Heggade. He has connections with parties across the political spectrum and exerts tremendous influence in the region.

Senior BJP leader R. Ashok, who is the leader of the opposition in the Karnataka assembly, claimed that the allegations are an anti-Hindu conspiracy to defame the temple. He went on to claim that the whistleblower “was a Muslim,” when he is in fact from the socially discriminated Dalit caste.

Former BJP Chief Minister YS Yeddyurappa dismissed the allegations as baseless. On record, the temple authorities have “welcomed the investigation.”

What is evident is that the clout wielded by those who hold the reins of both religious affairs and political power made it veritably impossible to bring the perpetrators to justice for decades. Even the ruling Congress government was hesitant to take action against the temple authorities since it would mean targeting a prominent Hindu institution. The Dharmasthala temple is more than just a temple; it is regarded as a spiritual center of the Hindu faith.

It is shocking that hundreds of rapes and murders were committed, and the law enforcers turned a deliberate blind eye since the allegations involved religious and powerful people. Victims’ families were silenced, and their pleas snuffed out.

Dharmasthala’s mass burials have now garnered national and international attention. It is imperative that justice be meted out to the victims and the guilty be brought to book, to restore faith in India’s democracy and its criminal justice system.


Courtesy: Kavita Chowdhury/ The Diplomat