In a major twist to the alleged secret burials case at Dharmasthala, a woman who had filed a police complaint saying her daughter had gone missing at the Karnataka temple town has now said that her statement was fabricated. Hours later, she changed her words again, alleging that she was forced to make these statements after some people promised to help her get justice.
“Some people came to me and asked me to make these allegations. Due to this, I had to say it,” Sujatha Bhat told a YouTube channel, which uploaded the clip Thursday evening.
In a complaint filed with the Dakshina Kannada police last month, Sujatha had requested the police to find the skeletal remains of her daughter, Ananya Bhat, who has been missing since 2003. Sujatha had blamed influential people from Dharmasthala for her disappearance.
However, when asked by the channel whether she had a daughter, Sujatha said no. She also accused right-wing activist Girish Mattannavar and T Jayanth, another complainant in the case, of coercing her to make the charges.
Sujatha had filed her complaint on July 15, days after the police registered a case into the alleged secret burials at Dharmasthala following claims made by a whistleblower.
Recently, Sujatha and her lawyer had issued a video statement and ‘released’ a photograph, which she had claimed was of her daughter. “That was fake,” she has now said. She said she raised this issue due to a property dispute with authorities at Dharmasthala, and due to the “pain” she endured as a “Hindu temple was under Jain tradition”.
On Thursday evening, she told reporters she was forced by the YouTube channel to claim that she had filed a complaint due to the property dispute. “They promised to help me,” she said.
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On her claims that she did not have a daughter, she said that she was compelled to say so. “Ananya Bhat is my daughter. Please stop this. I will make my statement with the SIT,” she said. Sujatha said that a lawyer promised to save her if she made these statements.
“The property issue is different. Do not link it to this case. Yes, there is a dispute with regard to property. But, I have not done this for property,” Sujatha added.
The ‘secret burials’ case
The Dharmasthala ‘secret burials’ case has taken the state by storm after allegations were first made by a whistleblower, a former sanitation worker, in July this year. He had alleged that he was forced to bury several bodies and was threatened against approaching the police. Following his complaint, the Dharmasthala police had registered an FIR on July 4. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed on July 19 is currently investigating the case. The SIT, which exhumed 16 locations, found two skeletal remains and collected soil samples from all sites to check for the presence of human DNA.
Recently, a forum including writers, lawyers, activists, and others had alleged that complainants and witnesses in the case were being threatened. “Attempts are being made to intimidate complainants and witnesses and to discredit them publicly,” it had said in a statement.