A 48-year-old Dalit and former sanitation worker at Dharmasthala temple in Karnataka, India, has exposed a scandal involving sexual assault, including of minors, and alleged mass murders, according to media reports.

 

“I can no longer bear the burden of memories of the murders I witnessed, the continuous death threats to bury the corpses I received, and the pain of beatings, that if I did not bury those corpses, I would be buried alongside them," he said in a statement given to the police on July 3.

 

He shared that he had worked at the temple from 1995 to 2014, near the Nethravathi River, which flows close to the Dharmasthala temple. During this time, he said he began to “notice dead bodies appearing” near the river, adding that “women's bodies were more numerous.”

 

“Many female corpses were found without clothes or undergarments… some corpses showed clear signs of sexual assault and violence; injuries or strangulation marks indicating violence were visible on those bodies,” he revealed.

 

The former worker added that he was forced to dispose of hundreds of bodies, many of whom appeared to be minor girls.

 

Describing one particularly harrowing incident involving a teenage girl in his complaint, he said, “She was wearing a school uniform shirt. However, her skirt and undergarments were missing. Her body showed clear signs of sexual assault.” 

 

“There were strangulation marks on her neck. They instructed me to dig a pit and bury her along with her school bag,” he recalled.

 

He detailed another “disturbing incident” of burying a woman’s body in her 20s. "Her face had been burned with acid. That body was covered with a newspaper. Instead of burying her body, the supervisors instructed me to collect her footwear and all her belongings and burn them with her," he described.

 

At times, as he was instructed, he burned dead bodies using diesel. “They would instruct me to burn them completely so that no trace would be found. The dead bodies disposed of in this manner numbered in the hundreds,” the complainant added.

 

He further revealed details of “extremely cruel” murders that he claimed took place in the town near the temple. “Destitute men who came begging in the Dharmasthala area were systematically murdered … They would be tied to chairs in rooms and suffocated from behind using towels. These murders took place in my presence,” he alleged.

 

The complainant, without naming anyone, alleged that his supervisors at the temple chose not to report the incidents. Instead, he claimed they beat him and forced him “to secretly dispose of these bodies.” He would help exhume the victims' bodies so they could receive “proper respect and funeral rites.”

 

The former worker also alleged that his supervisor threatened him by saying: “We will cut you into pieces; your body will also be buried like the other corpses. We will sacrifice all your family members.”

 

In 2014, the former worker fled Dharmasthala with his family after a minor girl from his family was allegedly sexually harassed by someone believed to be associated with the temple supervisors.

 

Weeks after his statement about alleged mass murders made headlines, the Karnataka government formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) on July 22 to probe the scandal and accusations against the temple authorities.

 

To back his claims, the former worker said he had recently unearthed skeletal remains from one of the burial sites and submitted photographs to the authorities.