The Indian police have urged human remains in a temple city in Karnataka, authorities said, as part of an investigation into accusations that hundreds of victims of murder and rape were secretly buried there in the mid -1990s.
The investigation focuses on Dharmasthala, home of an 800 -year temple dedicated to the Hindu Shiva god in the state of Karnataka and is attracting headlines in the media throughout the country.
A former cleaner in the temple told the police last month that the superiors had forced him to get rid of hundreds of bodies for two decades, many of them women and girls who show signs of sexual aggression.
His accusations were made in a police complaint dated July 4 and seen by Reuters.
The man, whose identity authorities have retained for security reasons, fled Dharmasthala in 2014, but said he was forced to speak now due to the persistent guilt.
“If the skeletons now exhumed receive respectful funeral rites, those tormented souls will find peace and my sense of guilt could also decrease,” he wrote in the complaint.
The police did not immediately respond to a comment request. A temple spokesman said he welcomed an exhaustive investigation and hoped that the police “would bring true events to light.”
In the complaint, the former cleaner accused the temple officials of forcing him to get rid of the bodies and told the police that he would appoint the officials if they protected him and his family. Karnataka Interior Minister told the State Assembly on Monday that the protection was now in his place.
The former cleaner said he had secretly exhumed a skeleton of one of the burial sites to prove his statements.
A special research team formed by the Karnataka government has so far recovered human remains of two of the 16 presumed burial sites, according to two senior police officers familiar with the investigation. They refused to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Karnatakas Interior Minister, Gangadharaiah Parameshwara, said the police have collected bone fragments, soil samples and another material for two sites tests thanks to the information of the old cleaner.
“The analysis is ongoing. Only once is complete, can we say that the investigation has really begun,” Parameshwara said?
“My request is not to make this a religious issue.” Sachin Ubpande, lawyer’s lawyer, said Reuters “They have found human remains where our client pointed out and we are sure that the truth will come out.”
He refused to make his client available for an interview.
The revelations have revived interest in older cases without resolving, including Padmalatha, a university student whose family alleged that she was raped and killed in Dharmasthala in 1986. Padmalatha, like many in India, was with only one name.
His sister, Indravathi, said the family buried Padmalatha’s body instead of increasing it according to the Hindu custom, hoping that it would help with any investigation later.
“We hope to obtain justice one day for his kidnapping, rape and murder,” said Indravathi, who uses only one name.
