In a first interview with media or authority outside the Special Investigation Team (SIT), the former sanitation employee who has emerged as a whistleblower in the Dharmasthala mass burial case spoke today. The men, who had worked for the Dharmasthala temple management, claimed that temple authorities buried unidentified bodies in wooded areas, without any documentation.
According to him, all burial instructions came from the temple’s data centre. “We never obtained orders from the Panchayat. It was continually the temple’s data centre that advised us what to do,” he said.
Burials in Forests and Riverbanks in Dharmasthala
The whistleblower named four others as a part of the burial team and said, “There have been no graveyards. We used to bury our bodies in forests, on old roads, even near riverbanks.” “We buried a girl on Bahubali Hills, and around 70 bodies at Netravathi bathing ghat.”
Signs of sexual assault arise
While he said he couldn’t verify the cause of the demise, the whistleblower of Dharmasthala alleged that many bodies show clear signs of violence and sexual attack. “Some had clear marks. It looked like they were assaulted,” he said. Although he clarified that only a medical professional should confirm whether the victims sexually assaulted or not.
The bodies, he said, ranged in age from children to the old age, with a some number of women, around 90 out of the 100 bodies he claims to have buried.
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