New Delhi, India – After spending three many years racked with guilt, scared on sleepless nights, and sometimes altering cities, a 48-year-old Dalit man appeared in Karnataka with details about one of the vital horrific alleged crimes in India.
Rising from hiding after 12 years, the person, who as soon as labored as a sanitation employee on the much-revered Dharmasthala temple, informed police on July 3 that he was coming ahead with “an especially heavy coronary heart and to get better from an insurmountable sense of guilt”. As a court-protected witness, the person’s id can’t be revealed below the legislation.
“I can not bear the burden of reminiscences of the murders I witnessed, the continual dying threats to bury the corpses I obtained,” he mentioned in his assertion, reviewed by Al Jazeera, “and the ache of beatings – that if I didn’t bury these corpses, I might be buried alongside them”.
Now, the whistleblower needs to assist in the exhumation of “lots of of lifeless our bodies” he buried between 1995 and 2014 – a lot of them ladies and ladies, allegedly murdered after sexual assaults, but in addition destitute males whose murders he claims to have witnessed.
After days of sustained strain from activists and public outcry, the Karnataka authorities – dominated by the opposition Congress celebration – has created a Particular Investigation Staff (SIT) to probe the allegations of assault and homicide.
So, what did the protected witness reveal in his criticism? Does the temple city have a historical past of rape and homicide? Are extra victims coming ahead now?
‘Tons of of our bodies’: What’s within the criticism?
Located on the scenic decrease slopes of the Western Ghats, Dharmasthala, an 800-year-old pilgrimage village, is situated on the banks of the Nethravathi River within the Belthangady space of the Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka state, the place almost 2,000 devotees go to each day.
On July 11, the person, absolutely draped in black clothes with solely a clear strip overlaying his eyes, appeared at a neighborhood courtroom in Belthangady to file his assertion.
The complainant, who belongs to the Dalit group – the least privileged and sometimes persecuted group in India’s complicated caste hierarchy – joined the temple in 1995 as a sanitation employee.
In the beginning of his employment, he mentioned within the criticism, he seen lifeless our bodies showing close to the river. “Many feminine corpses had been discovered with out garments or undergarments. Some corpses confirmed clear indicators of sexual assault and violence; accidents or strangulation marks indicating violence had been seen on these our bodies,” he famous.
Nevertheless, as an alternative of reporting this to authorities on the time, the person mentioned he was pressured to “dispose of those our bodies” after his supervisors beat him up and threatened him, saying, “We’ll reduce you into items; we’ll sacrifice all your loved ones members.”
The supervisors, he claimed, would name him to particular places the place there have been lifeless our bodies. “Many instances, these our bodies had been of minor ladies. The absence of undergarments, torn garments, and accidents to their non-public elements indicated brutal sexual assault on them,” he mentioned. “Some our bodies additionally had acid burn marks.”
The person has informed the police and the courtroom that he’s able to bear any exams, together with brain-mapping and a polygraph, and is keen to determine the spots of mass burials. Some websites are prone to be exhumed within the coming days.
Within the almost 20 years he labored on the temple, the person mentioned he “buried lifeless our bodies in a number of places all through the Dharmasthala space”.
Typically, as instructed, he burned lifeless our bodies utilizing diesel. “They might instruct me to burn them utterly in order that no hint can be discovered. The lifeless our bodies disposed of on this method numbered within the lots of,” he mentioned.
Why did he go into hiding?
By 2014, having labored there for 20 years, he mentioned, “The psychological torture I used to be experiencing had change into insufferable.”
Then, a lady from his family was sexually harassed by an individual related to the supervisors on the temple, resulting in a realisation that the household wanted “to flee from there instantly”. In December 2014, he fled Dharmasthala along with his household and knowledgeable no one among his whereabouts.
Since then, the household has been dwelling in hiding in a neighbouring state, and altering residences, he mentioned.
“Nevertheless, I’m nonetheless dwelling below the burden of guilt that doesn’t subside,” he mentioned. “However my conscience not permits me to proceed this silence.”
To again his claims, the person lately visited a burial web site and exhumed a skeleton; he submitted the skeleton and its {photograph} throughout exhumation to the police and the courtroom through his attorneys.
As we speak, the precise variety of lifeless our bodies will not be what issues to the previous sanitation employee, an individual intently related to the case informed Al Jazeera. They requested anonymity to talk.
“Even when it was simply two or three ladies, and never lots of, their lives matter,” they mentioned, reflecting on why the whistleblower got here ahead. “If there’s a probability at justice, their our bodies getting correct rituals, we wish to take it.”
Did he determine the victims?
No, he didn’t determine them by identify. Nevertheless, he detailed among the burials in his assertion to the police.
He recalled that in 2010 he was despatched to a location about 500 metres (1,640ft) from a petroleum pump in Kalleri, almost 30 kilometres (19 miles) from Dharmasthala. There, he discovered the physique of a teenage lady.
“Her age may very well be estimated between 12 to fifteen years. She was sporting a faculty uniform shirt. Nevertheless, her skirt and undergarments had been lacking. Her physique confirmed clear indicators of sexual assault. There have been strangulation marks on her neck,” he famous in his assertion. “They instructed me to dig a pit and bury her alongside along with her faculty bag. That scene stays disturbing to today.”
He detailed one other “disturbing incident” of burying a lady’s physique in her 20s. “Her face had been burned with acid. That physique was coated with a newspaper. As a substitute of burying her physique, the supervisors instructed me to gather her footwear and all her belongings and burn them along with her,” he recalled.
Have comparable crimes been linked to Dharmasthala prior to now?
Sure. There have been repeated protests through the years relating to the invention of our bodies of rape-and-murder victims in and round Dharmasthala, courting again to the Nineteen Eighties.
These protests have been sporadic however persistent, typically led by native teams, households and political organisations.
In 1987, marches had been organised within the city to protest the rape and homicide of 17-year-old Padmalata. The demonstrations uncovered alleged cover-ups by influential figures however had been reportedly quashed via intimidation and authorized strain.
The city noticed protests flare once more in 2012 with the “Justice for Sowjanya” motion, after one other teenager was raped and murdered. That case stays unsolved.
Over the many years, households and native political teams have held demonstrations and submitted memorandums to authorities, linking circumstances such because the 2003 disappearance of medical pupil Ananya Bhat to bigger allegations of mass graves and unnatural deaths.
S Balan, a senior lawyer within the Karnataka Excessive Courtroom and a human rights activist, informed Al Jazeera that the killings and mysterious disappearances in Dharmasthala date again to 1979.
“The souls of younger ladies are crying for justice; lots of of women who disappeared had been kidnapped, had been raped, and had been killed,” Balan informed Al Jazeera. “India has by no means seen this gravity of offence in its republic after independence.”
Balan additionally met the Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah final Wednesday with a delegation of attorneys, urging him to type the SIT to probe the alleged mass rapes and murders.
“The chief minister was severe about it. He informed us that he’ll discuss to the police and do [what’s needed],” mentioned Balan.
How have the temple authorities reacted?
The administration of the Dharmasthala temple has lengthy been managed by the highly effective Heggade household, with Veerendra Heggade serving because the twenty first Dharmadhikari, or hereditary head, since 1968.
Heggade, a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian award, is a member of the parliament’s higher home. He was nominated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) in 2022.
His household wields important affect within the area, overseeing a large community of establishments.
In 2012, the household got here below public scrutiny following the rape and homicide of 17-year-old Sowjanya, a resident of Dharmasthala. Her physique was found in a wooded space bearing indicators of sexual assault and brutal violence. Sowjanya’s household has persistently alleged that the perpetrators had ties to the temple’s management.
In a press release shared on Sunday, July 20, the temple authorities expressed assist for a “honest and clear” investigation and expressed hope that the investigation would uncover the reality.
Okay Parshwanath Jain, the official spokesperson for Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala, mentioned the whistleblower’s criticism has “triggered widespread public debate and confusion throughout the nation”.
“In mild of public demand for accountability, we perceive that the state authorities has handed over the case to a Particular Investigation Staff,” he mentioned. “Fact and perception type the muse of a society’s ethics and values. We sincerely hope and strongly urge the SIT to conduct a radical and neutral investigation and convey the true information to mild.”
Have the households of lacking folks come ahead?
Sure. Sujatha Bhat, the mom of Ananya Bhat, who disappeared in 2003, has responded publicly to the whistleblower’s stunning revelations about alleged mass burials in Dharmasthala.
The 60-year-old retired CBI stenographer mentioned she has lived in concern for greater than 20 years however was motivated by media studies of the employee’s testimony and the invention of skeletal stays. She filed a brand new criticism with the police final Tuesday.
Bhat mentioned she believes her daughter might have been among the many many ladies who confronted abuse and met a violent finish, solely to be buried with no hint.
She recalled that she was discouraged from pursuing the case additional. “They informed us to cease asking questions,” she reportedly mentioned, emphasising the local weather of concern and silence that surrounded Dharmasthala for many years.
Talking with reporters after submitting the criticism, Bhat appealed: “Please discover my daughter’s skeletal stays and permit me to carry out the funeral rites with honour.”
She mentioned she needs to “give peace to Ananya’s soul, and let me spend my closing days in peace”.
