Overview

• A former Dalit sanitation worker at Dharmasthala temple alleges supervisors forced him to secretly bury hundreds of bodies of women and girls showing signs of rape and strangulation.
• He exhumed and submitted skeletal remains and photographs to authorities to substantiate claims of clandestine burials dating from the 1990s through 2014.
• Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s administration established a DGP-led Special Investigation Team on July 22 to investigate decades-old sexual violence and review cold cases.
• Families of long-missing women, including relatives of a 2012 teenager, have formally petitioned the SIT to reopen unresolved murders and disappearances.
• Temple authorities under spokesperson K. Parshwanath Jain have endorsed a transparent inquiry while the whistleblower seeks protection amid threats to his safety.