Dharmasthala: Woman accepts giving fake testimony about ‘missing daughter’, fuelled conspiracy theory of ‘mass burial’ at the behest of 2 activists
On Friday (22nd August), an elderly woman named Sujatha Bhat conceded that her testimony of a missing daughter in Dharmasthala, which fuelled allegations of mass burial and sexual assault, was fabricated.
While speaking to a YouTube channel, Bhat informed that she was brainwashed into lying by activists Girish Mattannavar and T Jayanti. The duo had been campaigning to defame the temple town of Dharmasthala.
Sujatha Bhat had previously claimed that her ‘daughter’, Ananya Bhat, went missing in Dharmashtala in May 2003. She had alleged that the non-existent Ananya was an 18-year-old medical student who disappeared from the temple area.
Bhat also claimed that she was kidnapped, tied up and threatened not to return to Dharmasthala. She was allegedly told not to speak about her ‘ordeal’ publicly. She also claimed to be assaulted, treated at a private hospital in Bengaluru and remained in a state of coma.
“It is not true. There was never any daughter named Ananya Bhat,” the woman acknowledged. She further added that the picture presented as evidence of Ananya’s existence was also completely fake.
Sujatha Bhat conceded, “Some people told me to say it. I was asked to do it because of the property issue. That’s the only reason.”
Reportedly, she joined the defamatory campaign targeting the temple town due to a dispute over a parcel of land between the Dharmasthala temple administration and her grandfather.
Sujatha Bhat claimed that she never received or paid money in connection with her fake testimony. “Nobody demanded money from me,” she was heard saying.
She further apologised to the people of Karnataka for hurting their religious sentiments. “Yes, for the people of Karnataka, for the devotees of Dharmasthala…I ask the people of this state, and the whole country, to forgive me…” Bhat added.
In the meantime, the Special Investigation Team on Friday (22nd August) directed Sujatha Bhat to appear before its office in Belthangady.
17 sites searched, no skeletons of any woman yet
In the ongoing investigation into the sensational case, no human remains of any females (allegedly buried at the sites pointed out by a whistleblower) have been exhumed by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
The SIT started the process of digging at the sites pointed out by the sanitation worker on 29th July. Five sites, out of the total 13 sites identified by the sanitation worker, were dug up by the SIT by 30th July, but no human remains were discovered.
On 31st July, SIT exhumed some human remains at the sixth site. However, an official confirmed that they belonged to a human male.
The police reportedly found around 15 bones at the site, some of which were broken, but no skull was found.
In addition to that, the SIT discovered a debit card belonging to a woman and a PAN card belonging to a man. When the investigation team tracked down the owner of the PAN Card, they reached his family.
The PAN Card reportedly belonged to a man named Suresh, from Nelamangala taluk in Bengaluru Rural district. His father told the team that Suresh was an alcoholic and died of jaundice in March 2025.
The Background of the controversy
The case started after the unknown man claimed that he was former sanitation worker employed by the Lord Manjunatha shrine in Dharmasthala, and that he was forced to bury dead bodies of women and minor girls in Dharmasthala.
He lodged a complaint with the police on 3rd June with some ‘evidence’, and a week later, he appeared before a court covered head to toe to conceal his identity, to testify to the allegations made in his complaint. He submitted some skeletal remains he claimed to have exhumed from one of the burial sites.
The ’masked man’ had alleged that he was forced to burry a large number of young women and minor girls after they were allegedly killed at Dharmasthala between 1995 and 2014. Following this, another complaint was filed by a woman whose daughter had gone missing while on a trip to the pilgrimage town of Dharmasthala.
Given the seriousness of the allegations, the Karnataka government ordered the formation of an SIT to probe the case on 19 July. The ‘masked man’ gave the SIT the locations of 13 ‘burial sites’, and the SIT started excavating at those places.
And as the SIT excavated one after another site, the entire case started to fall apart, as nothing was found at those places. The skull that the man had submitted at the court turned up to belong to a man. The skull was examined at two hospitals, and both tests confirmed that it belonged to a man who died 30 years ago.
The ‘masked man’ claimed that 60-100 bodies were buried at site number 13 at the depth of 16 feet. The SIT used Ground Penetrating Radar, which detected nothing. When the site was excavated, nothing was found.
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