Overview

• Indrawathi, sister of 17-year-old Padmalatha, on August 11 submitted a formal plea to the SIT to exhume her remains and reopen the 1986 rape-murder investigation
• Padmalatha disappeared in December 1986 and her decomposed body was found in February 1987; no arrests were made and the original case was closed without resolution
• Since late July, the SIT has unearthed skeletal fragments at two of 13 sites, recovering one skeleton at site 6 and a skull with 81 bones near site 11, all now undergoing DNA profiling
• The SIT office in Belthangady has been granted full police station status and witness protection powers to manage security challenges and support victims’ families
• The new plea intensifies calls for accountability in decades-old sexual assault and murder cases ignited by a whistleblower’s allegations of clandestine mass burials