Families of victims like Soujanya and Padmalatha seek closure; want SIT to probe all past rape, murder, and missing cases. Here is another Ground Report
Even though the allegations of rapes, brutal murders, and mass burials at Karnataka’s Dharmasthala by a whistleblower have prompted the Karnataka government to form a Special Investigation Team (SIT), the decision to limit the scope of the probe only to the mass graves case has invited widespread opposition from locals.
Over the past 20 years, hundreds of women from Dharmasthala and nearby areas have either been found dead or gone missing without leaving a clue. With many linking the mass burials case to these incidents, families of victims such as Soujanya, Padmalatha, and Narayan Sapalya have demanded that all the murder, rape, and missing persons cases be brought under the SIT’s purview.
Families await closure
The SIT was formed after a former sanitation worker at the Dharmasthala temple came forward to admit that he was coerced into disposing of hundreds of bodies, mostly of women and girls who were sexually assaulted and killed, between 1998 and 2014. The whistleblower told the court that he was scared for his life as the people behind the rape and murders were influential.
Ground Report : Soujanya case comes alive with mass burial claims
Even though the SIT probe gives hope of unveiling a sinister series of crimes, the state government’s call to exclude past cases of mysterious deaths and missing persons has left the families of victims devastated.
The Federal Karnataka visited the homes of some of these grieving families. Parents who have waited decades for justice pleaded that their children’s cases also be investigated by the SIT.
Soujanya’s mother seeks justice
Kusumavati, mother of Soujanya, who was found raped and murdered in 2012, says she will build a shrine for her daughter the day justice is served.
“If justice is served, we will build a shrine,” says Kusumavati.
Soujanya’s mother Kusumavati, says she left home for college without eating on October 9, 2012, and that was the last time she saw her daughter.
“The last time we saw our daughter alive was on October 9, 2012. Despite years of legal battles and protests, justice has not been served. Now that an SIT has been formed, we want them to also investigate Soujanya’s murder and punish her killers. If justice is delivered, we will build a shrine at the spot where she was cremated,” Kusumavati told The Federal Karnataka.
Ground report: Dharmasthala whistleblower claims trigger locals-visitors trust deficit
‘She left for college, never returned’
Soujanya, a second PU student of Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College in Ujire went missing on August 9, 2012. Two months later, on October 10 that year, her lifeless body was found at Manna Sankha in Dharmasthala. She was strangled, bore signs of violent assault, with her hands tied with her shawl. Even though the CBI was handed over the case’s probe, in 2023, the lone accused in the case was acquitted due to a lack of evidence.
“Soujanya was my second among five children. That day was ‘pudwar’ (paddy harvesting festival). She left for college without eating, in a rush. She never returned. Her body was found the next day in a small ravine. A post-mortem confirmed that she was brutally gang-raped and tortured,” Kusumavati said amid sobs.
Padmalatha’s unsolved murder
In 1986, Padmalatha, a PU student from Ujire and the daughter of a local communist leader, was abducted. Her naked body was found 56 days later in the Nidale stream. Even though a case was filed, no arrests have been made, even after 39 years.
“We are still waiting to know if our sister will get justice. Now that the government has formed an SIT, it must include our case too and punish the guilty,” Chandravati, Padmalatha’s sister, told The Federal Karnataka.
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Sibling murder over land dispute
Narayan Sapalya, 62, a mahout, and his sister Yamuna, 45, were murdered in Poojjebail in 2012, reportedly after they refused to vacate their land.
“We refused to give away our ancestral home of 400 years, and my father and aunt were killed for that,” Narayan’s son Ganesh told The Federal Karnataka.
“If the police had acted properly, Soujanya might still be alive. We request the SIT to take up our case too,” he added.
Narayan and Yamuna were bludgeoned to death at their home near Dharmasthala bus stand on September 20, 2012.
CBI steno’s daughter still missing
Ananya Bhatt, a first-year MBBS student and daughter of Sujatha Bhatt, a former CBI stenographer, mysteriously disappeared in Dharmasthala during a trip in 2004.
“Three unknown people claimed they knew Ananya’s whereabouts. They abducted me, locked me in a room, and beat me up. I was unconscious for months. When I returned home, everything had changed. Even now, I’m searching for my daughter’s body—at least to conduct her final rites,” Sujatha tearfully recalled to The Federal Karnataka.
Also read: SIT to probe Dharmasthala 'mass burials', crimes against women; all about the case
Ananya was last seen near Dharmasthala temple. Her friends had left to fetch clothes, and when they returned, she had vanished.
Sujatha has urged the Dakshina Kannada police to re-investigate her daughter’s case after the whistleblower made the mass burial claims.
Govt decision undermines justice: activist
Sources say there is no record of the number of complaints about unidentified bodies that have been filed in Dharmasthala over the years.
Commenting on the decision to exclude past cases from the SIT’s purview, T Jayanth, leader of the Sowjanya Justice Committee, said it essentially undermines justice.
“This approach undermines justice. The SIT should also investigate old cases like those of Sowjanya, Padmalatha, Narayan, and Ananya Bhatt,” he added.
(This story was originally published in The Federal Karnataka)
