Karnataka man claims to have buried bodies of hundreds of rape-murder victims, including school girls

A man from a village in Karnataka made a shocking revelation to the police, claiming that he had been forced to burn and bury the bodies of hundreds of rape and murder victims. 

He said that the bodies he buried were of women and school girls who had been raped and murdered in Dharmasthala and neighbouring areas between 1995 and 2014.

After the complaint was made at the Dharmasthala police station on July 4, a case was registered under the BNS, according to a report by the New Indian Express.

The man, who formerly was a sanitation worker, said that he felt guilty and was willing to give complete information about the people who committed the crime and the locations where the bodies were disposed of. 

Dakshina Kannada Superintendent of Police Arun K. told the TNIE, “The person has requested not to reveal his identity, and after obtaining necessary permission from the court, we registered a case.”

The Dharmastala police had verified the authenticity of the complaint letter after contacting a Bengaluru-based lawyer who was mentioned in it, according to the Kannada Prabha.

In the complaint, the man wrote that he had left Dharmasthala overnight 11 years ago with his family, and hid in a neighbouring state out of fear of being murdered.

The man wrote, “I was born into what is considered the lowest caste. I worked as a sanitation worker at the Dharmasthala temple from 1995 to December 2014. Every day, I would clean the areas near and around the Netravati River. What started as a regular job later turned into a job of covering up evidence of the most horrific crimes. Early in my career, I noticed dead bodies turning up. At first, I thought they were suicides or bodies accidentally drowned in the river. Of these, most were women.”

The man’s letter describes how he had initially found the bodies of the women bearing wounds and strangulation marks. When he asked his supervisors, they had allegedly instructed him to dispose of the bodies quietly, instead of reporting them to the police. When he refused, he was assaulted and threatened. They had told him that the man who previously held his post had “disappeared”. They would later take the man to specific locations where the bodies were and would instruct him on how to dispose of them. 

The man describes a few incidents in the letter, which involved burying a schoolgirl with her bag and a woman whose face was burned using acid. He also claimed that he witnessed the murders of several homeless men who had come to Dharmasthala for beggary.

The man refused to mention the names of the accused until he and his family were granted protection, saying, “Some of the persons I have named are very influential and tend to eliminate those who oppose them. I am ready to disclose the full details of all the accused persons, including their names and specific roles, as soon as my family and I are granted protection under the Witness Protection Act of 2018.”

The man had also submitted photographs of the location of one of the dead bodies which he claims he had recently exhumed as proof. The police are yet to confirm the authenticity of the skeletal remains and the exact number of victims.

India