Dharmasthala Crimes: SIT likely to begin exhumation of bodies on Monday

Bengaluru

The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is recording the witness-complainant’s statements in the high-profile Dharmasthala mass burial case, is likely to commence the monumental exhumation of bodies on Monday, reliable sources informed blrpost.com.

While Deputy Inspector General (DIG) M. N. Anuchet and Investigation Officer Jitendra Kumar Dayama collected case files from Dharmasthala police, taking over the probe, SIT Chief Pronab Mohanty will be meeting the witness today (Sunday). The SIT also recorded the complainant’s statement on Saturday in an 8-hour-long session, which will continue today in the presence of Mohanty. The SIT is currently camping at the Inspection Bungalow of the Public Works Department at Mallikatte in Kadri.

Sources in the SIT say that “action will begin” on Monday, as the team is keen to dig the mass grave on priority. The team is currently analysing the statement of the complainant, whose pseudonym is Bheema. The SIT will begin collecting the necessary information for the exhumation. On the other hand, the SIT will write to the Magistrate Court to seek permission for the removal of the skeletal remains of the bodies allegedly buried by Bheema. The SIT strongly believes that exhumation must happen quickly, as the remains play a crucial role in the investigation.

Also Read | Dharmasthala deaths: 474 suicides in 12 years, 90 women among the dead in temple town, RTI reveals

Sources in the SIT also said it is keen on using ground-penetrating radars but is apprehensive about their effectiveness, as the geography has a moist terrain. These radars are more effective in rocky terrains.
It should be noted that the Karnataka government constituted the SIT team headed by Mohanty on July 19. The SIT, after finalising a team of 20 persons, began the probe.

In a haunting and deeply disturbing complaint filed at Dharmasthala police station on July 3, a former employee at Shree Kshetra Dharmasthala Administration, one of Karnataka’s most revered religious and service institutions, has detailed allegations of mass burials, sexual violence, and systemic cover-ups spanning over a decade. The police registered an FIR on July 4. Due to pressure from the media and advocates, the government formed the SIT. 

The survivor, who joined the institution as a sanitation worker in 1995 and continued working in various service departments until 2014, has laid bare a pattern of routine disposal of dead bodies—often of women, children, and vulnerable men. According to him, many of these bodies were not just unclaimed or unknown—but victims of brutal crimes, hidden behind the institution’s sacred image.

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