The Mastara Temple in Karnataka, India, which has more than 2,000 visitors every day, was reported to have destroyed bodies and evidence. A cleaner who had worked at the temple for 20 years revealed that he was forced to burn and bury hundreds of bodies, including women and children who were sexually abused.
According to foreign media reports, a 48-year-old man went to the police station to report the case and exposed this shocking case. He started working as a cleaner at the Mastara Temple in 1995 and found bodies shortly after he started working. “Many female bodies were found without even underwear, and some had obvious scars of sexual assault and violence.” However, he did not report the case because his superiors threatened him that if he dared to tell anyone, he and his family would be torn into pieces.
For about 20 years, he has been handling corpses. “Many times, the corpses are underage girls. Some of them have their clothes torn, some have even lost their underwear, and their private parts are injured, indicating that they have suffered brutal sexual assault.” When handling corpses, he will also burn them with diesel according to instructions to avoid leaving any traces. “I have handled at least hundreds of corpses in this way.”
It was not until 2014 that a girl in his family was sexually harassed by the temple administrator that he decided to leave. In December of the same year, he disappeared with his family without telling anyone where he was going. In addition, because they were worried about being discovered and silenced, their family kept changing their residence.
“The guilt lingered”, after hiding for 10 years, he mustered up the courage to report the case to the police at the beginning of this month. To prove his accusation, he also dug up skeletons at the place where the bodies were buried, and has submitted considerable evidence to the police.
Karnataka has set up a special investigation committee for the case, but the investigation has encountered great resistance because the temple is managed by the Heggade family, which is very influential in India’s religious and political circles. In the past, residents near the Mastara temple have reported missing persons many times, but the police have not taken them seriously. At present, the police have not listed the temple’s head as a subject of investigation.
