A forum has petitioned the Karnataka Government not to “succumb to political or institutional pressure” in the Dharmasthala secret burials case and to ensure that the Special Investigation Team (SIT) impartially inquires into the allegations made by a former sanitation worker of the temple town.
“We express concern over ongoing efforts by vested political interests, including BJP and feudal powers, to disrupt the SIT investigation. Attempts are being made to intimidate complainants and witnesses and to discredit them publicly,” the forum said in a statement issued following a meeting held on Thursday.
The forum, which includes writers, lawyers, activists, and others, said that BJP leaders and their affiliates “must stop threatening the complainants and interfering in the SIT investigation”, adding that filing false cases or intimidating human rights defenders and complainants must stop.
The meeting adopted several resolutions, including demands to reinvestigate four cases from 1979, 1986, and 2012. “These, along with other similar unsolved cases, must be brought under the SIT purview. If this is not feasible, we demand a separate special investigation team for these cases,” the forum said.
One resolution called for a comprehensive investigation “into land grabbing and the involvement of powerful interests in suppressing landowners’ rights” in Dharmasthala and surrounding villages in Dakshina Kannada district.
The resolutions came in the wake of discussions that took place in the state legislature during the Monsoon Session where Opposition legislators alleged that the case was being used to defame Dharmasthala.
The Government formed the SIT on July 19, after the whistleblower filed a police complaint stating that he had been forced to bury bodies of suspected sexual assault victims between 1998 and 2014 and warned against approaching the police.