Dharmasthala burial case: Political temperature soars as no major recovery after digging 17 spots

With no major discovery of skeletal remains in Dharmasthala after digging 17 spots listed by a man who claimed to have buried multiple bodies between 1995 and 2014, the political temperature in Karnataka seems to be soaring. 

The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which tried to corner the government over the issue in the ongoing legislature session, has planned a protest in the pilgrim town claiming that the Congress-led State Government is ‘hurting religious sentiments of the Hindus’.

This has pushed the Congress into damage-control mode. Deputy Chief Minister and Congress party chief D.K. Shivakumar said there was a systematic conspiracy to ‘tarnish’ the image of Dharmasthala, and said the government would stand by the holy site’s administrators.

Dharmasthala case: A timeline 

• June 22: Two advocates Ojasvi Gowda and Sachin Desai claim that a former sanitation worker who worked with Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala temple between 1995 and 2014, is ready to show sites of mass burial where he was forced to bury bodies of those allegedly ‘sexually harassed and murdered’, including many women. 
• July 3-4: The whistleblower lodges a written complaint with Dakshina Kannada police, who register a FIR based on his complaint. 
• July 11: The complainant made a voluntary statement before a Belthangady court and submitted partial skeletal remains he claimed to have buried years ago and exhumed himself
• July 15: Sujatha Bhat lodged a complaint that her daughter Ananya Bhat, studying medicine, went missing in 2003 after visiting Dharmasthala 
• July 19: State Government forms Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Director General of Police Pronab Mohanty 
• July 28: The complainant showed 13 sites around Netravati bathing ghat and surrounding forest area where he claimed to have buried bodies. SIT conducted mahazar of these 13 sites. 
• July 29: SIT starts digging at the sites 
• August 4: A second complainant, Jayanth T., claims to show a site where the body of a minor girl was buried.

Home Minister Dr. G. Parameshwara, while defending the SIT probe, said if the complainant’s claims are proved to be false, they would initiate action against him. 

No major recovery

Of the 17 sites dug up by the SIT, partial human skeletal remains - 14 bones - were found at only one place — site number 6. Unless forensic experts conclude that the person whose remains were found at site number 6 was indeed murdered, which is reportedly tough given that the entire skeleton has not been found, that case will also hit a dead end, sources said. 

Diggings and findings till now

• SIT has, till date, dug 17 sites shown by the complainant, and recovered partial skeletal remains at only one site. 
• Site number 6: SIT recovers partial skeletal remains, 14 bones, including teeth and some fragments of the skull. Prima facie forensic doctors have ruled the remains are that of a male. 
• Site number 13: The complainant had claimed it to be a mass grave where he had buried 60-100 bodies, at a depth of over 16 feet. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) deployed, but it drew a blank, no remains found when the site was dug. 
• Site number 14: When SIT reached to dig Site 11, the complainant claimed that the actual site was a short distance away, and led the team to a spot around 150 metres away to a place called Banglegudda, now marked Site 14. SIT recovered partial skeletal remains, 81 bones, including skull and backbone column, prima facie, of a male, lying on the ground. They also recovered male garments and a red saree hanging from a tree, indicating that it could be a case of suicide. When they dug the site, no remains were found. 

The remains found at site 14 — 81 bones — is said to be a likely case of suicide, suspected to be a recent case. If forensic reports indeed indicate the person died recently, it raises questions as to how the complainant, who claims to have left Dharmasthala in 2014, knew of the case.

In both cases, skeletal remains found are, prima facie, said to be of males. The complainant had submitted partial skeletal remains, which he claimed to be that of a woman he buried over a decade ago and exhumed recently. However, these remains also belong to a male, forensic reports have indicated. 

The complainant’s sensational claims of mass graves with 60-100 bodies at site number 13 have also fallen flat.

The road ahead

The SIT is likely to dig only a few more spots and not all spots where the complainant claims to have buried bodies. The complainant listed five specific instances of burying bodies in his voluntary statement in a court. Three of those five sites have already been dug up, and no remains have been found. The SIT is likely to dig the remaining two spots. The SIT will also likely dig a few other key spots where the complainant claims to have buried bodies.

A second complaint, by Jayanth T., is also set to be probed by the SIT. Jayanth T. claims to have been a witness to the burial of a 13-year-old girl, the investigation into whose death was botched up by the police who made it out to be that of a middle-aged woman who committed suicide by consuming poison. The SIT has been trying to procure documents pertaining to the Unnatural Death Report (UDR) case, and is yet to take a call on digging the spot.  

If no remains are found at any of these spots, the SIT may initiate legal action against the complainant, as per the statement of the Home Minister in the Assembly. 

Meanwhile, the SIT will probe the two partial skeletal remains found, and the missing case of Ananya Bhat, given by her mother Sujatha Bhat.