An image of response given by the Dharmasthala panchayat
No documents in Dharmasthala panchayat on money spent for K S Hegde mortuary
Bengaluru/Belthangady
The Dharmasthala Village Panchayat in Dakshina Kannada district has no records of money spent on keeping dead bodies in the cold storage units of the K S Hegde Hospital mortuary. This was revealed in response to a Right to Information (RTI) application.
Prabhakar Naik of Kanyadi had sought details from the panchayat regarding bills and the total amount spent on preserving unclaimed bodies at the hospital. The hospital is located in Deralakatte, about 70 km from the panchayat.
Notably, panchayat burial records show that most bodies found in the panchayat area were sent to K S Hegde Hospital for post-mortem. After the autopsy, unclaimed bodies were kept in cold storage for periods ranging from 3 to 41 days. Blrpost.com has accessed both the burial records and the RTI response regarding cold storage expenses.
In its reply, the panchayat’s Public Information Officer stated, “The applicant has sought details of total money spent on cold storage units for keeping unclaimed bodies between 2000 and 2025, along with vouchers. Pertaining to this, the office does not have any documents.”
The absence of such documents highlights gross negligence on the part of panchayat officials. Even if K S Hegde Hospital had provided the service free of cost, the panchayat should have maintained proper records. The lack of documentation raises serious suspicion. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the mass burial case must question the panchayat regarding this lapse.
Could it be free in lieu of Organ harvesting?
It’s claimed by Dharmasthala temple administration, that lots of devotees came to Dharmasthala and committed suicide to attain moksha. Dharmasthala gets hundreds of crores income from devotees. Why didn’t the temple donate a few ambulances and sponsor a cold storage morgue at Belthangady district government hospital?. When they earn so much from devotees, isn’t this a small gesture expected from the temple authorities, towards welfare of the devotees?
K S Hegde is a private medical college, opened only in the last 29-25 years. There are multiple well established medical colleges in dakshina Kannada dist. I don’t know about organ transplant, but it seems they have made a good arrangement with Dharmasthala to get endless supplies of bodies for post mortem, which would obviously be used to train their students. Unidentified bodies gives them enough time to adjust their class schedules, whereas relatives of identified bodies won’t leave the bodies there for long. In exchange, KS Hegde seems to be giving free cold storage morgue facilities to Dharmasthala unidentified bodies.
If someone could file am RTI at Wenlock hospital to check how mmuch capacity of the old storage units were vacant on days that bodies were sent to K S Hegde, you will get a more correct picture. The ambulance driver claimed wenlok used to be full, so they went to K S Hegde. Is that true?
Organ transplantation!! this case is going in all directions now. Now we know why the panchayat dispose the body without trying to trace the individuals. People involved here are highly influential. May the truth come to light.
It’s bodies of people once lived, not any vegetables to supply it to a private hospital.dharmasthala or it’s police have no rights to send bodies to a private hospital for post mortem unless it’s specifically requested by the relatives of the dead. In this case most of dead bodies were unidentified people which were sent to K.S Hegde hospital which is situated about 70 kms away from Dharmasthala.