Dharmasthala horror: Activists to storm temple town to demand graves be dug up

Bengaluru

About seven days after First Information Report (FIR) was registered in Dharmasthala police station over burial of bodies, sexual abuse and killings, the activists and advocates assisting the complainant to gather at temple town today (Thursday, July 10, 2024) and demand exhuming of dead bodies. 

A former sanitation worker filed a complaint alleging that he was coerced to bury the dead bodies mostly women for nearly 10 years by certain influential persons belonging to Dharmasthala Temple Administration. He worked under the temple authority between 1995 and 2014. (Also Read: Mass graves and silence: Sanitation worker alleges murders, sexual abuse inside ‘Dharmasthala institution’)

In the complaint he alleged that many of the bodies were of young women, often naked or partially clothed, some bearing clear signs of sexual assault. Others, including young girls and migrant men, had visible injury marks, burns, or indications of strangulation and mutilation.

In one particularly horrific incident around 2010, he was taken roughly 500 meters into a sugarcane field near the Dharmasthala campus. There, he found the body of a girl aged between 12 and 15, completely unclothed and apparently raped and strangled. The survivor says he was forced to dig a grave, bury her body, and burn her belongings to destroy any trace.

A noted activist from Kerala who is assisting the complainant talking to BLR.POST said “I along with other activists, advocates and youtubers will be visiting the police station to demand exhuming of the dead bodies. The complaint also has evidence including a photograph of a dead body that was buried long back. We also have information that the local police have now come under immense pressure to exhume the bodies as the media has picked up the matter.” 

On July 9, a Bengaluru based advocate, Manjunath N filed a complaint with Karnataka Director General of Police and Inspector General of Police, M A Salim over inaction by the local police.

Manjunath raised the alarm over the lack of visible progress in what he terms “a matter of unprecedented gravity.” The complaint refers to a first information report (FIR) registered on July 3, 2025, following the testimony of a former sanitation worker. 

For more Karnataka news development click here