Unholy ground

Strap: Dharmasthala’s sacred soil yields skulls and secrets, as one man’s horror story shocks Karnataka awake

Blurb:

The SIT has recovered a skull and multiple bones, possibly from the hands and legs, from the banks of the Nethravathi River—close to where the whistleblower said victims had been dumped. Digging is now underway at the seventh site

Byline: Ashwin K

A storm of dread is sweeping through Karnataka’s temple town of Dharmasthala—where ancient chants have been drowned out by the sound of digging shovels and whispered horror. What began with a Dalit man walking into a police station carrying skeletal remains has spiralled into one of the most chilling criminal investigations the state has ever seen.

The man, a former sanitation worker at the revered Dharmasthala Temple, claims he was forced to bury the mutilated bodies of raped and murdered women—and sometimes minor girls—at the orders of “powerful men”. For years, he fled from shadow to shadow, hiding his identity, living with a conscience that refused to die.

The man finally surfaced in July and gave his testimony to lawyers Ojaswi Gowda and Sachin Deshpande. A legal team then took the matter to the Dakshina Kannada SP, prompting what is now known as the Dharmasthala mass burial case.

Buried secrets, brutal ends

On July 11, the whistleblower appeared before a local court in Belthangady and detailed a string of horrors. “Bodies without clothes. Torn undergarments. Private parts mutilated. Acid burns. Bruises. Strangulation marks. Many of them were minors,” he told the court, several media houses reported.

He said he had been recruited by the temple in 1995 and was beaten and threatened repeatedly to ensure his silence. His own family wasn’t spared—he alleged they too faced harassment at the hands of a temple supervisor. Fearing for his life, he fled Dharmasthala in 2014 but returned years later, determined to unearth the truth—literally. The man identified 13 sites where he claimed to have buried bodies over the years.

The dig begins

On July 18, CM Siddaramaiah promised an impartial probe and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted. What was initially dismissed by some as implausible has since gained terrifying traction.

As of this week, the SIT has recovered a skull and multiple bones, possibly from the hands and legs, from the banks of the Nethravathi River—close to where the whistleblower said victims had been dumped. Digging is now underway at the seventh site, with green screens shielding the work from public view.

SIT Chief Pronab Mohanty, who visited the spot on Thursday, is expected to brief Karnataka’s Home Minister on the progress—and possibly discuss his name being considered for central deputation.

Old wounds reopened

The case has revived memories of 17-year-old Sowjanya, who was raped and murdered in Dharmasthala in 2012—a case that drew public protests and allegations of cover-up at the time. Families and activists now believe Sowjanya may have been one of many.

Earlier in the probe, police recovered a torn red blouse and a PAN card belonging to a woman named Lakshmi at the first dig site. The whistleblower had also submitted a skull, allegedly dug up from one of the burial grounds.

A state on edge

Former CM and BJP MP Jagadish Shettar has demanded a transparent probe. “An unknown man has claimed that hundreds were buried. We must know if that’s true. We must know who they were,” Shettar said in Belagavi.

While the SIT hasn’t confirmed how many bodies may be buried across the 13 sites, public anxiety is rising with every shovelful of earth removed.

The investigation is not just a test of law enforcement—it’s a moral reckoning. The haunting question remains: How many women vanished in silence while the state looked the other way?

BOX –

A timeline of events

• June 22: The former sanitation worker met lawyers Ojaswini Gowda and Sachin Deshpande.
• June 27: A legal delegation met the SP of Dakshina Kannada district
• July 3: The former sanitation worker registered a complaint with the Superintendent of Police about the crimes he had committed.
• July 4: The Dharmasthala police registered an FIR on the basis of the complaint.
• July 11: The complainant appeared before a Belthangady court and submitted skeletal remains he claimed to have exhumed from one of the gravesites.
• July 18: The CM addressed the issue and told the press that the government would look into the matter.
• July 19: A Special Investigating Team (SIT) was formed, and it started investigating the matter.
• July 21: Investigation officially began, and the excavation started.
• July 31: Skeletal remains were found in the sixth spot after the SIT had failed attempts in five other locations.