Dharmasthala, India, August 2: Indian investigators have recovered partial skeletal remains from a wooded riverside site in Karnataka’s Dharmasthala region, the first confirmed evidence in a probe into alleged secret burials spanning nearly two decades, officials said on Thursday.
The discovery was made by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Karnataka government to probe claims by a former sanitation worker who alleged that more than 100 bodies, mostly of women, were buried without documentation between 1995 and 2014.
The SIT recovered about 15 bones from the sixth of 13 sites identified by the complainant during an on-site visit last week. “Some of the bones were broken. No skull was found at the site,” an SIT official told reporters. A forensic expert offered a preliminary opinion that the bones are likely human and may belong to a male, though conclusive identification awaits laboratory analysis.
The site lies in dense vegetation near the Netravathi river, a terrain that officials say has slowed the excavation due to environmental challenges, including underground water seepage and recent rainfall.
The SIT began exhumation on July 29, after five previous sites yielded no human remains. The latest recovery is being treated as the first tangible breakthrough.
The investigation follows a police complaint filed on July 3 by the 48-year-old sanitation worker, who claimed to have witnessed or participated in undocumented burials over a 20-year period. His statement was recently recorded before a magistrate, prompting police to register a case under section 211(A) of India’s Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
Earlier, the SIT recovered a PAN card and a debit card at one site, later traced to a man who died of jaundice in March and his living mother. Officials ruled out any link between the documents and the burials under investigation.
The Karnataka government formed the SIT on July 19, following a recommendation by the state’s commission for women. The panel cited media reports and a family’s complaint regarding a missing daughter, along with the sanitation worker’s testimony, as indications of long-standing crimes, including alleged sexual assault, murder, and disappearances.
“We are treating each site as a separate crime scene and documenting everything carefully,” an SIT officer said, adding that the team is not drawing conclusions at this stage but is keeping all possibilities open.
The SIT is headed by Pranav Mohanty, director general of police (internal security), and includes senior officers from Bengaluru city and the internal security division. It operates out of the Dakshina Kannada district police office and reports directly to the state’s top police officials. Further excavations at seven remaining sites are expected in the coming days.
