A Special Investigation Team (SIT) in Karnataka is conducting forensic ground-penetrating radar (GPR) scanning at Site Number 13 in the Dharmasthala jungle along the Netravati River to locate reported mass burials. The investigation was triggered by a former sanitation worker who claimed he was forced under threats to bury hundreds of murdered women and girls across 50 locations between 1998 and 2014. Six additional eyewitnesses have come forward supporting the burial allegations. SIT has excavated 17 locations, recovering skeletal remains at Sites 6 and 11A, though an excavation in the Bahubali hills yielded no remains. Following the SIT probe, families of historical missing persons, including the sister of pre-university student Padmalatha who disappeared in 1988, have petitioned for cases to be reopened and bodies exhumed. The probe faces intense political friction, attacks on journalists, and allegations of forced student counter-protests.
Country: India
State/Province: Karnataka, India
City/Region: Dharmasthala
Incident Type: Murder
Relationship Status: Unkown
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Incident Date: Dec. 22, 1988
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How the relationship or connection began.
Important relationship phases recorded for this case.
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1988-12-22
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English labels are shown first. Original-language titles are preserved for source verification.
Unknown
The reported events center on allegations of systemic serial homicides, sexual assaults, and clandestine mass burials in the Dharmasthala jungle between 1998 and 2014, alongside cold-case disappearances dating back to 1988. The conflict pattern involves institutional power dynamics, whistleblower disclosures, coercion, and subterranean forensic searches rather than a domestic intimate partner dispute.
Note: The source case is not primarily relationship-driven; it focuses on whistleblower claims of mass burials, sexual violence, and historical missing persons in Dharmasthala. SIT investigations involve GPR ground scanning at Site 13, prior excavations yielding human skeletal remains at Sites 6 and 11A, legal petitions from victim families, political counter-mobilization, and assault cases involving journalists.
Investigative challenges include physical and technical hazards at Site 13 (electric poles, power transformers, and a nearby dam), false search leads such as the Bahubali hills trench which yielded no human remains, contradictory witness claims regarding the whistleblower, political allegations accusing the whistleblower of fabrications, and claims by a victim's lawyer accusing SIT of covering up excavation sites.
The investigation began after a former sanitation worker disclosed burying hundreds of bodies across 50 designated locations under threat. SIT conducted manual excavations at 17 locations, recovering skeletal remains at Sites 6 and 11A. Six additional witnesses corroborating the burial claims came forward, while families of missing persons requested case reopenings. To navigate technical obstacles at sensitive Site 13, SIT deployed Karnataka state Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) equipment to complete non-invasive subterranean scans prior to manual digging.
High operational and physical safety risks exist for whistleblowers, eyewitnesses, victim families, and journalists covering the investigation, evidenced by reported physical attacks on reporters and allegations of coerced institutional counter-demonstrations.
Non-invasive Ground Penetrating Radar combined with forensic exhumations offers an essential methodology for validating whistleblower disclosures regarding historical mass burial sites while mitigating operational hazards near critical infrastructure.
Multiple unresolved missing persons reports of young women in the Dharmasthala region dating back to 1988, accompanied by local rumors of buried victims.
Specific site identifications provided by the former sanitation worker, corroborated by skeletal remains at Sites 6 and 11A and statements from six additional eyewitnesses.
Subterranean GPR radar scanning data, recovered human skeletal remains from Sites 6 and 11A, historical police missing persons files, and formal family petitions for exhumation.
The former sanitation worker reported being threatened and coerced into burying hundreds of female victims. A female witness stated she saw the former worker burying a body and requesting water. Six additional witnesses reported observing body burials. Indrawati stated her sister Padmalatha disappeared on December 22, 1988, and was sexually assaulted and murdered.
Follow-up reports showed that excavation at Bahubali hills under a dry tree yielded no remains, prompting SIT to focus GPR scanning technology on Site 13 to verify subsurface anomalies before digging.
It remains unresolved whether GPR scans at Site 13 will yield verifiable human remains, who orchestrated the reported homicides and forced burials, whether DNA profiling will match missing persons registries, and whether historical cold cases like Padmalatha's will proceed to formal exhumation.