SIT vs NIA? Dharmasthala ‘Mass Burials’ Case Turns Into a Political Tug-of-War

The alleged burials of dead bodies in the temple town of Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada, 300 km from Bengaluru, many of girls and women allegedly murdered after sexual assault between 1995 and 2014, has all the trappings of Bollywood film by the Ramsay Brothers, who made horror movies in the 1970s-80s.The plot commences with a 48 year-old, masked man walking into the Dharmasthala police station on 3 July, holding a skull, which he claimed was of a woman.The masked man, a sanitation worker employed in the Dharmasthala temple, said he was willing to turn witness about hundreds of such bodies he had buried between 1995 and 2014. He has now been arrested on charges of perjury by the police after investigations revealed his allegations were unsubstantiated. He later told the police he was coerced into making the allegations as part of a conspiracy.Karnataka Scraps Caste Census Report: Vokkaliga, Lingayat Lobbies Have Their WayWhat commenced as a routine crime investigation after the Dharmasthala police registered an FIR on 4 July has now turned into a political and religious row between the ruling Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka. The BJP claimed the alleged mass burials were a move to tarnish the image of the 800-year-old Manjunathashwara Swamy temple in Kshetra Dharmasthala. The Congress, meanwhile, has alleged the smear campaign is a fall-out of the internal rift in the BJP.The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (media and communication department) chairman Ramesh Babu told The Quint that a tussle between the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the BJP to gain control of the temple had led to some hatching the plot of mass burials. "The objective of the RSS and the BJP is to gain control over the temple's administration,'' he said.Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala temple is unique in many ways. The daily rituals are performed by Vaishnavite Brahmins with a Shaivite deity (Shiva) and the temple's administration is under Jain Bunts, with the present Dharmadhikari (hereditary administrator) being Veerendra Heggadde, nominated Rajya Sabha MP.The political sparring dominated the legislature session too, and has now spilled over to the Dharmasthala precincts. The BJP has now called the matter a "dharma yudh" and has planned a "Dharmasthala chalo" movement on 1 September to demand the handing of the probe to the National Investigation Agency (NIA).Questioning the government's urgency to hand over the matter to a Special Investigation Team (SIT), the BJP claimed it was done to "defame and destabilise a very important Hindu institution," according to BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, who was part of a car rally that went from Bengaluru to Dharmasthala on 25 August.The Karnataka government constituted the SIT with a mandate to investigate all unnatural deaths, disappearances and sexual assault cases linked to Dharmasthala on 19 July. Opposition leader in the Legislative Assembly, R Ashoka, maintained that it was Siddaramaiah who had politicised the Dharmasthala issue and not the BJP. "Dharmasthala belongs to all Hindus in India and the world. We are going to Dharmasthala on 1 September as Hindus, not as BJP members,'' he said. The Janata Dal (Secular) has planned a separate rally on 31 August.Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, echoing the controversy as a result of an internal rift within the BJP, urged Dharmadhikari Veerendra Heggade not to allow the shrine to be misused for political purposes. On the 1 September rally, Shivakumar stated it was an attempt to exploit devotees and stir unrest. "Do your rally in Bengaluru, if you want to. Don’t drag devotees into politics,'' he stated.Reacting to the BJP's objection to the SIT and the demand that it should be referred to the NIA, sources aware of the matter said the government did not suo motu hand over the case to the SIT. "When the complainant made a statement before the magistrate, after being convinced of the issue's magnitude as it involved the Forensic Science Laboratory, the intervention of the state's women's commission, and public outcry, the SIT was ordered,''A source overseeing the matterWith the issue heating up by the day, political leaders from the BJP and JD(S) are individually landing up at the temple town to pledge their support and lash out at the government for its decision on the SIT. "We are just watching the situation. When a fair investigation is on, some want to derail it. The government will handle the situation and if it goes beyond a point, the response to it will be different,'' said the sourceAssam’s 3,000-Bigha Land Deal Reveals Hypocrisy of BJP's 'Indigenous' PoliticsThe masked man, whose identity was protected by the court till the perjury case was slapped, guided the SIT to over 13 spots, where he is alleged to have buried the bodies. The SIT is moving the court to remove him from the Witness Protection Law and name him. The alleged burial spots are spread across the banks of the Nethravathi river, the highway, and nearby forested areas in Dharmasthala. The exhumation operations, which commenced on 29 July, recovered 100 bone fragments and skeletal remains in spot 6 and 11-A. The whistle-blower was joined by two more witnesses, who claimed to have seen the murders.He told the police that remorse and guilt prompted him to come forward after 12 years to reveal the dark deeds, and also after a girl from his own family was sexually harassed by a person connected to the temple supervisors. In December 2014, he claimed to have fled with his family and since then been living in hiding in a neighbouring state and changing residences.In his statement before the police, the sanitation worker claimed the temple supervisors would call him to specific locations where there were dead bodies. “Many times, these bodies were of minor girls. The absence of undergarments, torn clothes, and injuries to their private parts indicated brutal sexual assault on them,” he told the investigation team.Amid the controversy, a woman named Sujata Bhat filed a complaint that her 19-year-old daughter went missing during a college trip to Dharmasthala. She later retracted her allegations and said she has no daughter and her family has a property dispute with the temple and some persons associated with the case pushed her to make these allegations. The masked man's ex-wife has told the police that her husband is a "habitual liar" and probably fabricated the story to make money.The first allegation of rape and murder in Dharmasthala was made in 1987, when a 17-year-old girl was found dead. Her family alleged rape and murder, but the case was never solved. Similar allegations were made in 2012 after another 17-year-old went missing. A day after her disappearance, her body was found in a forest area with her clothes torn. The case was initially investigated by the state police and later handed over to the CBI. The prime accused, Santhosh Rao, was acquitted in 2023 due to a lack of evidence. The victim's mother has filed a petition before the SIT to reopen the case, as according to her, the sanitation worker is aware about what transpired.Home Minister G Parameshwara told The Quint that no time frame can be set for the SIT to complete the inquiry. The BJP wants a time frame and the issue to be referred to the NIA. Veerendra Heggadde, meanwhile, has welcomed the SIT inquiry, but the way forward now depends on how the right wing groups plan to escalate the issue after the Dharmasthala Chalo on 1 September.(Naheed Ataulla is a senior political journalist based in Bengaluru. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

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SIT vs NIA? Dharmasthala ‘Mass Burials’ Case Turns Into a Political Tug-of-War

Both BJP and INC are locked in a political slugfest as the case of the alleged mass burials refuses to die down.

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Topics: KARNATAKA Temple