Public outrage is rampant regarding the alleged mass burials in Dharmasthala, with commentators expressing distrust towards local authorities and the justice system. There is a strong consensus on the need for accountability, transparency, and a thorough investigation free from political influence. The community feels betrayed by the inaction and complicity of powerful figures, leading to fears of an investigation cover-up and a deep desire for justice for the victims.

Karnataka Government

Karnataka Police

Local Authorities

Media

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Its been happening for a long time. Locals are aware of it. Nobody can talk about it because people with power will kill them. And others who are not from the place are coming to worship in that temple unaware whats actually going on. These people are fooling common people in the name of god and killing locals who raise voice against thier wrong doing. No law for people involved in politics and who have power. Law is only for us common people.

Ok_Entertainment5970

Yes.

Karnataka police is busy filing cases against people talking about it. Everyone is trying to cover it up, at all levels.

ThickStuff7459

This guy with an ex-police officer had released a video recently which made many people aware. It's not available in official channel anymore - https://youtu.be/nledGg2NTLU?si=7CpOiC004dmw01nI

Only some small Kannada youtube channels are covering this. The investigation is handled by a junior officer so lawyers are urging CM to form an SIT and involve retired supreme and high court judges.

Finally there is a strong witness who submitted some proofs and surrendered to police. He is ready to show the places where bodies are buried. Instead of letting him do that, they are doing some brain mapping and other tests to possibly declare him as mentally unstable and close this case. They even refused to provide him protection. It's been a week since he surrendered. They have not yet searched for the bodies. He is ready to come along and show the locations but police are urging him to let them know the location instead.

We need more people to speak up and make it public so Government is pressurised to continue investigation. There are hunders of murders involved. Shameless CM is ready to ignore and close the case. They might even destroy evidence and silence the witness soon. I don't understand why opposition is not making use of this negligence. All these confirm the involvement of influential individuals.

spidercrabcake

No coverage from main stream media and there is hardly anything about this on internet. This should be on frontline.

santosh1106kumar

Im 2006 born and I never heard about it till yesterday, not only local officers but Elite Beaurocrats and Members of elite circle have deep hands in it because thats how it stayed a secret for 3 decades

Desi_Hitman

Yes if you visit the place in and around you can see big hoardings about this girl called Soujanya who was raped and murdered and an innocent mentally challenged man was wrongly accused of it and poor thing is still in jail ! 
It’s horrible if you hear the stories !

Visual-Wealth8291

There is a good video about this case on a channel called “Wronged” on Youtube.

BlowwFishh

This just shows that we cannot trust any of the news outlets to give us unbiased news any more. They are all corrupt and bought for.

jeff22249

Wonder if Vivek Agnihotri or Sudipto Sen will make a Karnataka story based on this!

Tess_James

puddi_tat

It seems to have too many political players involved with the main family being linked to both primary national parties.

And I guess they possess enough dirt to expose both parties, kinda like just nailing down 1 guy might expose all &amp; hence everything is being hushed up.

It sounds like a conspiracy theory, but honestly, if even after a month of the guy confessing in court &amp; having said he'd assist in locating the buried bodies, still no progress being made makes me lean more on a bigger picture being buried behind. Instead police are trying to hush everything up by not forming SIT or providing witness protection nor are they trying to exhume the bodies but instead trying to divert the direction to stupid stuff like proving the claimant is mentally ill when it'd be much easier to go to the actual location &amp; check for the bodies.

ryizer

Happening from decades. No one was dared to speak. Infact if you go for FIR filing, police will upfront say no. This needs to be a national issue.

Secret_Mud_2401

Can we all mass tweet on X and bring the attention of relevant authorities ?!! 

Opposite-Eye380

Powerful people are involved and Dharmasthala being a major religious center in Karnataka, government is going slow on this. Law enforcement is not for mighty and religious heads.

Empty_Employ6744

The Dharmasthala rape and murder cases have seen disturbing silence from both the government, opposition and mainstream Kannada media. Despite serious allegations, there’s been no action, due to the influence of powerful Dharmasthala Heggades. The voice of the oppressed are silenced by religious Mafia, Key witnesses have gone missing, and cases are being closed citing “lack of evidence”. This is a shame to people of Dakshina Kannada!

Edit: Finally Karnataka govt has woken and constituted a SIT led by DGP Pronab Mohanty to probe series of Murder and burials in Dharmasthala. Order for SIT was issued today 20/07/25.

Wait and watch, in some time this whole thread will vanish like it never existed! And that will scare us all even more!!

learning-unlearning_

Hour-Trust-6587

Upper caste is involved,so they tryna be real hush hush about it

shit_monk

So everybody here says that "we" should do something. It's easy to say that from behind a screen. Legal or illegal, it would be a suicide mission to act up on these things. We need someone like batman for this hell of a Gotham Country! Or someone like Anniyan to clean up these evil monsters. Or someone with supernatural powers. Other than that, you're dead.

AdvanceLittle1877

This what uniparty system looks like, guy is mp for BJP father was congress mla, now congress govt filled case against a youtuber for talking about this case, mostly nothing will happen to him.

tempsigma

hecktors_of_hecks

kovalam_

Such a damn shame. Completely disgusting CM and Media

Blood-Born-9

The locals are well aware and have avoided going to temple and premises. It’s the non-locals who aren’t aware and still storm this place and fill the pockets of these criminals. Together, people should hit them where it hurts, that is their money flow. Their hold and influence will also go down. But for now, it’s important that non-local people are made aware of the crimes involved.

Clean-Grass7799

State politicians have already started dismissing it, calling it a smear campaign. They haven't even investigated yet. It'll be covered up, 20 years of murder victims are not going to get any justice. And this place is supposed to be holy. So much for faith

kewcumber_

This is what happens when you place too much importance on religion

FriendshipSoggy7602

I have always gone by this rule - the more religious a person, the shadier they are as a human. Religion has always been a device to control dumb masses, and that's what I initially thought of them - dumb. But I have come to believe all major regions establishments are a front for crimes - embezzlement at the least, smuggling whatever the place famously collects, crimes against women/children and straight up devil shit like this case.

why-even-try-at-all

This isn't a temple it's the devil's lair masquerading as one . This place should be boycotted . If you are a woman never enter this temple .

mikolasthefirst_1

Who cares until the culprit is muslim?
Ram Raheem is getting parol every fuckin year.
Asaram giving lectures to his bhakts while on parol.
Bilkis bano rapists are getting warm welcome by VHP and BJP goons.
We all aware of everything but we just can't do anything and its sad.

Simmu_21

Culprit isn't muslim or crime scene isn't a mosque, so most of the tanatanies don't care!

Guilty-Pleasures_786

[deleted]

Are we really living on a Democratic country bruh...? 💀😑

InstructionOk9486

Can someone tell me in short what has exactly happened to those 1000 people, who did it and involvement of temple? 
I have come across many posts but couldn’t gather the entire picture.

DamnitOMG

Police administration justice politicians -local state centre all in their pocket. Empire is lakh of crore.
They can get anyone. Has personal army and informers .

No_Box_8066

I'm pretty sure the current government's (both state &amp; central) or the future one's are gonna bring the real culprit ( Nischal Kumar Dharmastala) to the limelight. One thing for sure. he and his entire family members will definitely get Karma hit at some point. The universe will definitely make sure they get their rewards for their deeds

Wild_Mention_4740

This happens everyday across India. can’t tell you how many stories we heard during various yatras

Lonatolam4

It sucks that how our media is not even mentioning this,
Shame on this.
We have just corruption left now.
Earn. Pay text,live in poverty, see dreams and die of hopes that one day things will change.
Maybe many of us are living normal loves but then there are many many whole We unintentionally choose to avoid.

Total-Code-5316

Indian Law does not exist for Muslims and Upper-castes in power.

CartographerTop1422

https://isha.sadhguru.org/en/blog/article/pattadhikari-veerendra-heggade-sri-kshetra-dharmasthala-conversation-sadhguru

Educational_Dish2463

Imagine how many of such incidents are buried that people are not aware of or afraid to voice up 
This is India where the rich and influential can do anything and the judiciary favors them

Haunting-Recover4338

How are we letting people who did crimes of this scale get away with it? It’s shocking to see the silence of media in this case man. 😳😳😳

No-Guarantee2963

GALAXY_12321

I think each of us who is reading the post should repost and tweet this, this is how our govt works, when they want to avoid something they just don't care until everyone starts speaking about it.
We need to keep news alive so that it wont be forgotten.

This is prolly a dumb question, but do we have any solid evidence apart from the alleged worker's claims that there have been around 400 unnatural deaths/ disappearances in the area?

AccomplishedBrick304

It is an old story and many experts say there is no case…but our society people just want to continue the drama, so they keep showing everywhere wasting everyone’s time…If I am not wrong it is 10 year old case…

Just-Checking-User

So much noise about this family, so many people coming forward, yet no one is able to do anything? And this has gone on for this long. 

These reddit posts also eventually get deleted.

Throw678890

It's been almost a week since he admitted to the burials in court. The recent update from the police is that 'there's a chance of him absconding after exhumation,' which is baffling. They are now planning to conduct narcotics tests and brain mapping on him to prove he's legitimate. How hard is it to just dig up the bodies to know the truth?

Also, the lawyers have stated that the witness hasn't been provided with any protection, even after the court ordered the police to do so. They've also mentioned that the police have been asking him to reveal details of the burial sites beforehand.

What is even going on? How is the police so incompetent? Why do they even need the burial site information beforehand? Wouldn't that increase the chance of evidence being destroyed?

This is so messed up. I had a tad bit of hope that this time the truth would come out. I'm slowly losing that hope. I wouldn't be surprised if they declare him mentally ill and somehow orchestrate his death, making it look like an accident.

A big 'F' for everyone in the country who believes there's a system that works fairly (at least in cases as monstrous as this).

Source and References :
1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/dharmasthala-burial-case-investigation-officer-will-take-call-on-exhuming-bodies-say-dk-police/article69819829.ece/amp/
2. https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/2025/Jul/17/dharmasthala-mass-burial-case-police-say-whistleblower-missing-lawyers-say-no
3. https://youtu.be/rr5dx2DjBUw?si=KCuR7yF2RCeBxuIb

Cxaicup

How different are we from taliban regime. A helpless desperate mother silenced for 20 years and the judiciary doesn’t have the guts to stand up against few individuals. 
Toothless judiciary. As aam Aadmi don’t we have voice ?? 
Shouldn’t we stand up for her ??

sarcastishyan

Guys a simple request, whatever post comes up on here about this atrocity, please upvote to the max. 

There should be hell for the people involved and we should not let it go into obscurity.

AtopiaUtopia

Can't believe such things happen in the land of the Gods. You're supposed to be there to protect the people. I honestly hope those responsible rot in hell, because I have no faith left in the system. This might be just one case who knows how many more are out there. Let's hope justice is served, one way or another.

Terminat0r-

That son of a bitch Veerendra, it's a high time to arrest him.

blackcucknigg_

Poor mother just wants her daughter's body😢

AdDowntown1959

at this point the police are completely useless and hand in glove with the criminals. What’s the point of the law and justice if these criminals get a free hand and the common citizen has to endure this.

Witty_Active

The fact that no major kannada news outlets are covering this issue says alot about the influence they hold. I feel shattered knowing that the mother will NEVER get the closure she needs. Politicians and leaders have failed everyone like her

the_sane_titan

Hey guys. The notion of this family being dragged into the mud has been since a long time, I wanted to know if some of you have heard any stories about them apart from the mainstream media?

VarunMysuru

Along with that investigation should be done on those cops as well as why the complaint was not taken

sachclg

Secret_Ad_2213

I feel for this woman's plight. Only daughter, body also they did not give. Worse, the threat was from the highest order. In one way I feel public is also responsible for this. The so called hatred some people have against different groups here, they are easily mentally hijacked by uneducated politicians. One kerala story like film comes, people flock to watch it, knowing well that it is a propaganda film. Purpose of the film is to create fear and animosity among groups. Now when hundreds of girls were raped and murdered allegedly, no one is opening their mouth.

Salty-Set-55

Victims feel helpless, common people helpless what's the point getting freedom from the British.

Big-Product-286

since_1997

So many victims, so many stories. Still there is no action against the perpetrators. Sad story of our Indian system. The rich can get away with anything!

BasicEnergy3228

the skeleton ain't always gonna be hidden in the closet

Reasonable_Walk6446

Enu kitkolakke agalla, everyone sucks their you know, can't do shit. Justice won't be served untill these guys die.

False-Item9973

2003. Local Police+Local Goons+Local Govt=exploitation

Ok_Instruction8567

GroundbreakingAd1583

I have heard that few people from North Karnataka are ready to come for DNA matching but only if the bodies are excavated and until then they won't come front as they are scared.

Tasty-Rest-1459

I heard many ppl are afraid of what will happen to them if they speak out, I heard some great high class ppl have a habit of silencing out ppl who go against them that could be the reason ??

Kitchen-Apricot-4806

Just for merely criticizing them on fb via a news channel page comment, I got spammed by multiple fake ids from Dubai and local fake christian named sims a few months ago. 130ppl group whatsapp call multiple times. I didn't pick. 

So if that could happen within 5m of my anonymous fb profile posting a comment on a news page, then imagine what can happen to witnesses and the families who come forward.

Dr_NitroMeth

biscuitrotti

Read an article (possibly on Reddit itself) that the victims of these horrific crimes might have been from pilgrim families. Possibly from underprivileged backgrounds. They might have had to return to their home towns after a few days/weeks for their livelihoods, and are not coming forward now as they are scared and now they don’t stand a chance against powerful people/lobbies.

dogs_any_day

People are afraid cuz a lot of politics involved.

Immediate_Ladder6289

There is no need to question or wonder about the bodies . All that is needed was for them to ask him - show the bodies.  Why are u not asking that question? why this was not done for 1 month if there was nothing to hide?  
Why yegiyurappa is saying nothing happened in Dharmasthala? Before any investigation has happened?

StrangeNormal-8877

Man it's always about blaming the victim.

The government openly admits hundreds or even thousands of victims of human trafficking but will you question their families about why they are not on the street asking for justice.

It's the same with sexual assault victims, thousands of women are sexually assaulted all over india, so why don't you question the victims why they are not protesting/seeking justice.

Hundreds of farmers commit sucide in Karnataka itself, so their families aren't seeking justice, does that mean that they haven't committed sucides.


Read about the justice system, people each case has its own circumstances. Read books, watch documentaries about victims of heinous crimes before making stupid accusations.

Such stupid theories only lead to more power to the perpetrators and nothing else.

ApartProgress9284

3 possible reasons:

1. people are scared to come out due to high profile opponents.

2. must have happened to tourists/kidnapped/trafficked women.

3. numbers may not be that high.

Ok-Bee2272

I'm not supporting anyone here. I'm just curious.. why weren't there missing person cases for 400 people? The families just forgot about it?

HiggsBoson-17

It's not that simple. Ultimately, money (resources) equates to power. Consider this: can an ordinary individual at the taluk level truly have the power and courage to confront their local MLA? To even get this official's attention, it would take at least 50 people rallying together. However, it takes many years for 50 people to gather the courage to do so.

Here this family, consistently have made all possiblities to gain fear and also trust in factions of society. And it's extremely hard to tackle and break it.

In Karnataka, because of Congress govt. Some steps towards SIT have taken. In our country, Congress party doesn't have that much Image. To go at other states and ask for votes, Congress has to take Karnataka government steps as examples and shine there. So, hope that investigation goes impartial and truth triumphs.

profundaxy_005

Investigation is yet to begin  
Once the "alleged" remains are exhumed, then probably more people will come forward.  
Mind you, there have been natural deaths too of old people who go there for reasons best known for them.

Friendly-Quality7670

They know the media will cover this news for a few weeks and no justice will be served. After all they have to stay at their home after a few months.

cowboykills

Fear my friend Fear
This really looks like a script of tollywood movie where the villain is mysterious and super powerful.

Argon-39-

It took very little digging to find some old news articles from years ago. 1 woman goes missing every 3 days in that area. There are mysterious unsolved deaths of over 400 in that one area. The response of the administration apparently was people come there to commit suicide which is ridiculous! If you dig further, it's disturbing how the news articles just tag everything as suicide (a lady's decomposed body was found in forest after she went missing while returning from work, the police assumed death by poison with no basis for it. Why would a person consume poison and go to forest and die?). A brother and sister get killed in their house in the middle of the night, but the news report called these vitims mentally unwell whereas its well known that the guy got killed as he didn't want to sell his land despite repeated threats. Also, in the case of ananya bhat, the police refused to file FIR, the mother of the missing girl was beaten up by the temple authorities and was in coma for 3 months. That should answer why there aren't more families coming out to seek justice. This reeks of a LOT of systematic corruption. 

I will provide these links here of the old news articles here.

https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/others/is-dharmasthala-the-new-tipus-drop/articleshow/63456311.cms


https://www.deccanherald.com/india/karnataka/463-unnatural-deaths-dharmasthala-ujire-2295864?utm_source=whatsapp&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=socialshare

https://www.daijiworld.com/news/newsDisplay?newsID=807276

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Mangalore/bring-dharmasthala-temple-under-state-purview/article6604955.ece

Own_Foot_8530

Even auto walas know about this criminal activity

Zealousideal-Pea9814

The people in power and the Dharmastala top brass are corrupt and definitely have blood of their hands. But questions like this make it hard for me to believe the claims of 400 deaths until actual bodies are found. Occams razor.

notsosleepy

There may not be 400 because that would have raised flags. The number seems exaggerated. However there’s no smoke without fire. There have been rumors circulating even way back that there has been some shit like happening. But if even half the numbers is true - isn’t it a case of human trafficking.

General-Beautiful574

Usually when people seek justice, they forget fear as they have nothing to loose. That is what is happening in Sowjanya case, but I don’t see the same level of response from any of the ‘400’ families which makes all of the claims very suspicious, more so with the concerted effort for justice from various groups over the last couple of years.

Logical-Pressure1794

Why didn't the family members of the holocaust victims protest outside Hitler's office?

anythingactuallynot

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And I used to think the financial corruption of congress era was an unbearable burden, 

I guess lack of social media just gave a good cover for the pervasive moral corruption. 

Lack of unity in the community not only deprives people of representation but also the right to justice and dignity.

mistiquefog

Nothing has come since till now? That's 30 years of silence?

When did the population become spineless?

With body count near 100, how come not a single soul attacked (legally or otherwise) on the alleged folks? Like WTF!? 

I can understand my position may look filmy but dude, someone from the family has been missing and no one investigated on their own? 

The village mob could have easily resolved this either way.

Edit: Grammar

ok_heremeout

Very disturbing. I guess it’s just that people are more informed and feel courageous now to open up  due to awareness and mass uproar if things go south. Salute to this guy for finally opening up. I hope the government gives him security and keep this case details classified unlike how they goofed up in case of Satyendra Dubey in NHAI

Slow_Brother9664

If it was down my a Muslim, then they would have barked at national level. D gang member is a rajya sabha member too.

amy004

This is beyond my understanding... So many questions... 

The_NOS_44

Just another attack through a made-up conspiracy targeting a well known Hindu temple town. There have been multiple similar attempts earlier in Tirupati, Kanchipuram etc to tarnish the reputation of these temple towns and let missionaries/mosques move in.

This seems like a very common modern woke/leftist/progressive propaganda toolkit component. Similar stories were floated around in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and currently one such story going on in Ireland. You can google it. The earlier stories in Canada/Australia/NZ led to massive investigations and millions of dollars were spent. They finally resulted in nothing. But a lot of politics did happen over the dead bodies.

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monsters, can't even believe its happening in 21st century.

The problem is, incidents in southern part of the country is usually ignored by national media.

Prajjwal Revanna raped 300 women in Karnataka, no national uproad. Revanna case verdict happens on July 30th, mostly he will be let go because of his caste and power.

Hope such monsters are sentenced to death in the most brutal manner by our govt.

BitHopeful8191

Oh not surprising…. Another case of rich and powerful people can do whatever they want and get away with it. They’ll probably say, rape who? Or that “The girl came to sleep with me and later decided to give herself as sacrifice to the gods”. The ruling government, the police and their puppets are even more of a joke 🤡

FinePack5604

I have ABSOLUTELY NO PATIENCE for people who are playing this down on the pretext of "oh another day powerful people getting their way"

SHUT THE FUCK UP AND BE OUTRAGED.

DragonSheepstealer

This sounds *exactly* like the villain landlords in Hindi and south Indian movies!




I saw a sad video about padmalatha, a girl murdered in Dharmasthala in 1986. Her mother says she found her body with the limbs tied  and folded. 


Ananya Bhat's Mother's disturbing experience  also scared me..


Sowjanya's campaign, despite being huge has no justice. I hope Veerendra Hegde rots!




#Police waited for all evidence of rape to be destroyed, but they are swift to block sameer MD's video in India🤦

The guy involved controls that entire region and is a favorite of both Congress and BJP and religious assholes(Hindu, Muslim, Christian). He has the backing of the OBC caste people of that region(extremely important for vote bank politics). The media have specific list of people whom they cannot write stories on. This guy is one of them. 

I dont think anything will happen. This needs exhumation and maybe a SC order taking the case under cognizance. Assuming he does not have SC also under his influence. How little value the common person's life carries in India is a known thing.

CompetitiveHat7090

Most don't care about crime against women and children.

Agreeable-Owl648

An investigation into alleged mass burials in Dharmasthala, Karnataka, continues as a Special Investigation Team follows leads provided by a whistleblower.

Dharmasthala Mass Burial Investigation

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