Dharmasthala mass burials: MP’s letter to Amit Shah urges NIA probe into mass concealment of organised crime
In a letter that is now circulating online, Member of the Rajya Sabha Santhosh P Kumar wrote to the Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, urging a probe into the pattern of crimes and alleged concealment of them in Dharmasthala.
Kumar describes the confession made by the Dharmasthala ex-sanitation worker and whistleblower on July 3, who alleged that he has buried over 500 human bodies, mostly belonging to women and minors. The ex-sanitation worker had said in his complaint that influential men in Dharmasthala forced him to bury the bodies that had been sexually assaulted and disfigured by acid.
He also highlights several past cases that have been left open-ended, linking them to the recent developments in the town.
Some of the cases highlighted in the article are
1979: A school teacher named Vedavalli was burnt alive in her bathroom after winning a promotion, which many opposed.
1986: Padmalatha, a young PU student and daughter of a communist leader, was kidnapped and was later found dead and naked in the Netravathi river.
2004: Medical student Ananya Bhat went missing after visiting Dharmasthala, and after her mother, who was a CBI employee, tried to investigate, she was attacked and fell into a coma. No FIR was ever filed in the case.
2012: Narayan and Yamuna, two siblings, were brutally murdered in their home close to the KSRTC bus stand. According to reports, the siblings' family had resisted pressure to vacate the land. Their house was razed and replaced with a commercial building.
Also in 2012, Sowjanya, 17, a PU student, was abducted, raped and murdered. A mentally ill man who was jailed for the crime was acquitted years later, and witnesses of the case died mysteriously.
The MP then goes on to explain how locals of Dharmasthala have been aware of how bodies have turned up in all their nearby forests and hills.
Kumar points out that the number of unnatural deaths in the town has been alarmingly high for it to be dismissed as a statistical anomaly.
The MP states in the letter that the confession made by the ex-sanitation worker on July 3 was detailed, specific and supported by evidence.
He claimed that the murders are not isolated incidents but showcase the working of an organised criminal enterprise that has been able to silence the administration. He also claims that activists, RTI petitioners, journalists and grieving families have faced threats and fabricated cases, online abuse and even physical harm.
Recently, YouTuber Sameer MD had been booked for making a video about the mass burials. The case against him was that he used fake AI-generated content to mislead the public. This was not the first time Sameer had a case against him. In March, he was booked for making a video about the Sowjanya case and hurting religious sentiments.
MP Santhosh Kumar then urges the Ministry of Home Affairs to hand over the case to the National Investigation Agency, saying that only an agency with full authority will be able to unravel the criminal network and identify those responsible.
In the most recent development, Karnataka has set up a Special Investigation Team SIT to probe the mass burials at Dharmasthala. The SIT will be headed by the Director General of Police (DGP), Internal Security Division and Cyber Command, Pronab Mohanty. The team will include DIG (Recruitment) MN Anucheth, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) of the City Armed Reserve (CAR) headquarters, Soumyalatha and Superintendent of Police (SP) Jitendra Kumar Dayama.
Lawyers who represent the whistleblower in the Dharmasthala mass burial case had handed over a memorandum to CM Siddaramaiah, raising concerns about pressure tactics ot derail the investigation, such as police collusion and information leaks.
India