SEPTEMBER FOCUS - 2025

BELTHANGADY UNNATURAL DEATHS

QUESTION OF ANSWERS

Public in Dakshina Kannada in coastal Karnataka is aware of questionable deaths in and around Belthangady area which were hardly investigated by the police and thus has remained a riddle. These unnatural deaths have been happening since many years. Even now there is one Soujanya murder case going in circles. And comes this report in THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS, “Man ready to blow lid off series of rapes, murders in Dharmasthala”, sometime late June 2025. According to the report a person who is in the know of series of alleged murders and rapes in Dharmasthala wants to share his knowledge. In association with his two advocates he wants to share his knowledge with the condition that police ensures his and his family’s physical safety. Hope some day truth of those alleged rapes and murders around Belthangady area comes to light and are accounted for.

On July 3, 2025, reportedly a complaint was filed with the Dharmasthala police by an unidentified person along with his advocates claiming that he was forced to bury bodies of many persons, including women and men, who were allegedly raped and murdered in Dharmasthala, during his employment with Dharmasthala temple administration between 1995 and 2014. Police reportedly registered the case after taking permission of a court. On July 11, 2025, reportedly, complainant produced some of the skeletal remains of a body, that he claimed to have exhumed on his own, before the Principal Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate First Class, Belthangady, and gave a statement regarding the same, informs the report.

On 16th July 2025, “22 years after daughter disappeared in Dharmasthala, mom files complaint”, reported one of the paper from Mangalooru, on the first page. “Medico went missing in Dharmasthala on 2003, mother seeks justice” was the report of another newspaper, also on the first page. “Mother of medical student, who went missing in Dharmasthala in 2003, meets DK-SP”, was the report of yet another newspaper, but on page three.

Here mom or the mother has been referred to 60 years old Sujatha Bhat from Padmanabha Nagar in Bengalooru and her daughter referred therein was a first year MBBS student in Manipal, Ananya Bhat, who went missing in 2003, in Dharmasthala, as all above reports refer to it as the common place where the young medico was last seen alive.

Here the first question that crops up is why it took this lady Sujatha Bhat 22 long years wait, for this latest complaint? The answer is, according to report she got no support in her search for the missing daughter since she was turned away by the Belthangady police station, where the station incharge who reportedly remarked “your daughter must have eloped”, and Sujatha was verbally abused and driven out of the station. So police in Belthangadi was the culprit, she tells, that denied her opportunity to get an answer to her question, “what happened to my daughter who went to Dharmasthala with her friends in 2003?” Then comes those unknown individuals who allegedly assaulted her in Dharmasthala, when she went there looking for clues for her missing daughter, and she lost consciousness due to the assault and regained it in a hospital. Probably those individuals were privy to the knowledge of her missing daughter and didn’t want to answer any question. Who were those individuals?!

According to one of the report, Sujata approached the authorities in Dharmasthala temple. What transpired between these two, is unknown. But later that night while sitting outside the temple in despair, she was approached by some men dressed in white, claiming to have some information. She tells “They abducted me, tied me, gagged me and confined me in a dark room near the temple overnight. They warned me to remain silent, assaulted me and eventually hit me on the head”. Reportedly because of that head trauma, Sujatha remained in coma for three months and later found herself in a hospital in Bengalooru with no memory of how she got there. She still bears a head wound from that attack that required eight stitches, she informs. Probably she was lost into self-imposed amnesia in the grief of her missing medico daughter for 22 long years, until recently when the news channels carried the news of a faceless sanitation worker attached to the Dharmasthala temple administration appeared in court with his side of the story of mass burials where he was allegedly forced to bury the dead.

Now that Sujatha Bhat has again approached the police in Dharmasthala with the help of lawyers and filed a complaint asking for a thorough investigation into the mysterious disappearance of her daughter Ananya Bhat, a medico. Reportdly, if, as and when the mortal remains of her daughter is found and a DNA match is established, Sujatha wants to perform the last rites, so that her daughter’s soul attains peace. Reportedly she also met earlier Dakshina Kannada Superindent of Police Dr Arun K and sought justice that eluded her for over 2 decades.

According to the information available in the media she was working with CBI in Kolkata when Ananya was lost. Can anyone imagine, if a person working for CBI was treated so badly by Belthangady police in 2003 and then some Dharmasthala temple staff beating her up, what can be the situation of ordinary citizens with no name to flaunt! In India, people in position of money and money power always wielded disproportionate influence in societal happenings, and this is so, even after 75 years of free India, and we call it Amrit Kaal!

Deeply disturbed by the, out of the blue, development involving the death of a large number of women, Karnataka State Women’s Commission (KSWC) has urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to constitute an SIT- Special Investigation Team- to probe these allegations of unnatural deaths, disappearances and sexual assault of women in Dharmasthala, a major temple town in Dakshina Kannada in coastal Karnataka. In a letter to CM, Nagalaxmi Choudhary, the Chairperson of KSWC, has written, “There are allegations that police failed to act appropriately when family attempted to register complaints about missing women or unnatural death”.

Of course some of the political outfits like SDPI have jumped into the already murky waters to cause embarrassment to the political patrons, if any, and friends of Dr Veerendra Heggade, the Chief of Dharmasthala temple authority. They have demanded thorough investigation into all unnatural deaths reported in Dharmasthala since decades. The president of SDPI Anwar Sadath Bajathur has alleged ‘political influence is suppressing justice and called for SIT under a sitting judge of High Court’. He criticized political parties for staying quiet and demanded ‘where are Sangh Parivar Members?’

Right enough the BJP strongman in Karnataka BS Yediyurappa has stated, as per media report that “there was no foul play amid allegations of mass burials in Dharmasthala”, while reacting to the demand for the constitution of SIT. It was like ‘wolf reading the scriptures’ from a person who is under the cloud of a POCSO case, which is the lowest point for any politician.

A group of advocates led by CS Dwarkanath, a former Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes has also demanded the formation of SIT with a judge of SC or HC as head. The group cited distressing information pointing to the involvement of highly influential individuals and urged the government to ensure transparent and impartial investigation procedures.

Reacting to demands from many pressure groups, the Karnataka government has formed SIT with DGP Pranab Mohanty as the head. Mohanty is Director General of Police of Internal Security Division. On forming the SIT, the police went ahead with all seriousness to pursue the truth of the complaint of the faceless sanitation worker, a former employee of Dharmasthala temple. Soon thereafter SIT personnel accompanied by the complainant and his advocates visited several suspected burial sites under tight security. Reportedly SIT has zeroed on 13 sites in and around Dharmasthala for probe. The group visited several sites in the nearby forest near the Nethravathi River bathing ghat in Dharmasthala to collect evidence.

With investigation into allegations of the mass burials there have been media upsurge with all and sundry jumping into the band wagon and many posts and videos were circulated in the social media. The news and views travelled far and wide among the interested public. That has clearly rattled the vested interest persons in the temple town.

Disturbed Secretary of Dharmasthala institutions Harshendra Kumar has filed a suit to restrain the public space from circulating posts and videos ostensibly defamatory of Dharmasthala temple and its administration. Reportedly a City Civil and Sessions Court, (CCSC) in Bengalooru has passed an ex-parte ad-interim mandatory injunction against 332 defendants and media houses, YouTubers and Social media handles to “delete 8800 links/URLs on reports about alleged mass burials in Dharmasthala.” Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a web reference on the internet to web page, image file or link. Its essentially the ‘address’, that allows the browser to find and access specific content. According to the report, the CCSC judge Vijaya Kumar Rai, “This is an exceptional case wherein there are warranting circumstances to pass an ex-parte interim mandatory injunction directing defendants to delete and de-index all defamatory content as specified in the schedule on the plaint to prevent further damages.” However when the apex court of the land is talking in heightened seriousness about the freedom of expression and media privileges, its surprising how this restraining order was passed, although its mentioned as “interim”!

After some initial set back for the SIT there were some breakthrough in finding skeletal remains that were found as investigation progressed. A report in the media “Dharmasthala Exhumation: 100 bones, skull found on 6th day”, informs about progress on the ongoing investigation by the SIT. Report also mentions about skeletal parts recovered were suggesting that they may belong to two individuals, while also informing that ‘a knotted saaree was also found at the same site’. In the meanwhile, Jayant, an RTI activist, has filed another complaint about the death of 13/15 years old girl under suspicious circumstances some 15 years ago in Dharmasthala. According to him, the girl’s body was buried without post-mortem and no FIR was registered in the case, at that time. Apparently he has some 4/5 witnesses who are prepared to testify the statement. According to Jayant his purpose is to highlight the police indifference and is not directed against any individuals or institutions. He is also in the know of Sowjanya murder case and has crucial documents in his possession on the same, he tells.

Politicians making common cause with local issues is a done thing. Nothing wrong with it. However the entry of senior politician and a former Union Minister Janardhan Poojari, was not expected. He pleads not to tarnish the image of Dharmasthala temple with the SIT probe. However, what is being investigated is the truth of unnatural deaths and who and how it is caused and therefore tarnishing the name of Dharmasthala does not arise. The allegations of the faceless complainant is people involved are the administration staff of temple. If proved they have to be made accountable and not the temple, per se. Janardhan Poojari also has demanded statement from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He needs to understand that since SIT probe is on, on the instruction of Court, the matter is clearly sub-judice and therefore neither PM Modi nor CM Siddaramaiah can make any statement. He has also demanded that Prime Minister Modi should visit Dharmasthala and give a speech if bodies are being buried only in temple premises. This is a strange demand, to say the least. However since Janardhan Poojari is a Congress man, he should ask Rahul Gandhi, the defacto Congress Supremo, who is also the Leader of Opposition, to make a common cause with the episode. This is more in order, if not entirely correct.

One more complaint has come from one Indravathi, sister of Padmalatha, a II PUC student of SDM College Ujjire, who had gone missing on 22nd Dec 1986 in Dharmasthala. Reportedly her decomposed body was found near Neriya Stream on Feb 17, 1987. She wants SIT to probe the death of her sister, who died under mysterious circumstances 38 years ago in Dharmasthala. Indravathi allege that Padmalatha was kidnapped, raped and murdered.

The latest political entrant to the controversy is the Karnataka BJP President, who has reportedly stated that a 200 member BJP team is visiting Dharmasthala temple as devotees and offer prayers, ostensibly to show solidarity with temple administration. He is reported to have said that there is no politics involved in the visit. However like it or not their visit is pure and simple party politics since they are going as ‘200 members BJP team!’

While it is true that most of the location shown by the faceless complainant did not lead to any useful findings, there were some which did show up some skeletal remains. However other cases, from Jayant T and Indravathi clearly indicates the possibility of multiple disappearances of young girls either not found or found dead. These cases will certainly sustain the charge of unnatural death in and around Belthangady.

In the meantime two more eye witnesses have come forward to depose before the SIT informs a report. One of them Purandara Gowda has claimed that he had seen bodies being buried near site nos: 1 & 13 between 2003 and 2017. “I saw bodies being taken out from the boot of an ambassador car and buried near the Nethravathi bathing ghat. I also saw bodies being buried behind my shop, where there was a toilet”, Purandara Gowda was reported to have told media men, while adding that ‘one of the men burying the bodies resembled the complainant-witness, who claimed to have worked with Dharmasthala temple administration since 1998’! Another witness Tukram Gowda also claimed to have seen a body being buried and said he would reveal complete details before the SIT, informs the report from Mangalooru. There have been other claimants too who have come up with their side of the story of these unnatural deaths.

In the meanwhile there has been social media posts rubbishing both the masked man complaint and Sujatha Bhat as made up stories. However a print media report has denied development that marked man has admitted to false hood. But corroboration in print about Sujatha Bhat has come indicating all that Sujatha Bhat has stated is all cock-bull story and not true at all. Suddenly things are increasingly appearing to be becoming a TROJAN HORSE.

In the meanwhile SIT has arrested faceless complainant accusing him of perjury, that what he claimed as a female skeletal remains which he presented to the court in Belthangady, turned out to be of male. Other details of the masked man started to appear in media casting aspersion on him leading to suspicion about his role in the entire episode.

Now its upto SIT to come up with their conclusive statement on the ongoing investigation on these unnatural deaths in and around Belthangady. In the meanwhile Dharmasthala temple authorities have stated in a press meet that ‘there has been no wrong doing in the temple town and they welcome the SIT formation, so that truth will emerge’.

As we wind-up waiting for the SIT report, we all need to understand that in the domain of Supreme God, its only TRUTH & JUSTICE that should prevail and nothing else. After all SATHYAMEYVA JAYATHEY is our national credo, that is TRUTH ALONE TRIUMPHS. Hope the presiding deities in Dharmasthala temple help the truth and justice to prevail, nothing else matters.