Kerala BJP demands probe into conspiracy as Dharmasthala whistleblower is arrested, complainant retracts
In an interview with Republic Kannada, Sujatha said she never had a daughter named Ananya and had released a fake photograph to the media.
In an interview with Republic Kannada, Sujatha said she never had a daughter named Ananya and had released a fake photograph to the media.
In an interview with Republic Kannada, Sujatha said she never had a daughter named Ananya and had released a fake photograph to the media.
Kozhikode: The BJP in Kerala has urged Karnataka's Special Investigation Team (SIT) to fully expose the conspiracy behind the sensational "mass burial" allegations in Dharmasthala, after police arrested the whistleblower, and another woman retracted her sensational complaint of her daughter's kidnap.
"The conspiracy behind the 'Mask Man' must be brought out in full," said BJP's Kerala North Zone president Adv K Shreekanth. He said the allegations raised by the so-called whistleblower had already been proven baseless in the Karnataka Police probe, and those who orchestrated them must be held accountable.
The whistleblower, who claimed he buried hundreds of bodies between 1995 and December 2014, when he worked as a sanitation worker for the Dharmasthala temple, was arrested on August 23, after hours of questioning by SIT chief Pranab Mohanty, Director General of Police, Internal Security Division, Bengaluru.
Shreekanth described Dharmasthala as a temple that not only protects Sanatana Dharma but also runs major social, cultural, and educational projects. "The attempt to malign such a temple was part of a bigger conspiracy. But that conspiracy has collapsed," he said, criticising those who gave undue publicity to charges "that defied even basic logic".
The controversy has further unravelled with Sujatha Bhat (60), a former CBI stenographer and one of the first complainants, retracting her sensational charges. She now admits she fabricated the story of her daughter, Ananya Bhat, being kidnapped in Dharmasthala. In an interview with Republic Kannada, Sujatha said she never had a daughter named Ananya and had released a fake photograph to the media.
She claimed she concocted the story because temple authorities were allegedly holding on to her grandfather’s property. In another interview on a YouTube channel, she said she acted on the insistence of two activists. She has since sought forgiveness from the people of Karnataka, insisting she did not fabricate the story for money but for her grandfather's property.
Sujatha, whose second name may not be Bhat according to the police, said Ananya was actually the daughter of her friends Aravind and Vimala, who she claims later died by suicide and whose house in Surathkal was destroyed in a fire. She claimed she had the couple's permission to go public with what happened to Ananya.
She now claims she saw Ananya being dragged away by men in Dharmasthala with her own eyes, and the following day she was found dead, with some of her clothes missing.
But her original police complaint said her daughter, Ananya Bhat, an MBBS student, vanished from Dharmasthala in 2003. She accused the temple authorities of refusing help, assaulting her, and alleged that the girl was among women secretly buried there.