Tucked deep in the Western Ghats in southern India, Dharmasthala is the kind of place that often feels untouched by time.
The monsoon air clings thick to the skin, the Nethravathi River hums gently through the hills, and the scent of wet earth rises from stone paths.
Warning: This story contains content that may cause distress for some readers.
Pilgrims come from across India to seek blessings at the revered Shri Manjunatha Temple — a centuries-old shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva.
But last month, that serenity gave way to something more sinister. The air, heavy with humidity, carried an eerie stillness. A chill lingered that had nothing to do with the weather.
Police vehicles now line the roads near the Nethravathi bathing ghat. Armed officers stand guard as red and white tape cuts through the surrounding forest.
Locals gather in clusters, watching from the edges, waiting to see if authorities will find what they've been told lies beneath the soil — evidence of one of India's most chilling alleged crimes.
Just weeks earlier, a former sanitation worker at the revered temple emerged from hiding after 11 years, saying the weight of his silence had become unbearable.
"I can no longer bear the burden of memories of the murders I witnessed, the continuous death threats to bury the corpses I received, and the pain of beatings — that if I did not bury those corpses, I would be buried alongside them," he wrote in a statement reviewed by the ABC.
He has not named the people he claims were responsible, saying he requires protection from the court before doing so.
With what he described as "an extremely heavy heart," the 48-year-old whistleblower asked police to exhume what he claimed were hundreds of bodies — men, women, and children — he buried between 1995 and 2014.
Many of them, he said, were women and girls raped and murdered before being secretly disposed of in the forested edges of this temple town.
[Dharmasthala MAP]To give his allegations credibility, he says he even went to a burial site and exhumed a skeleton, later submitting the remains and its photograph to the court via his lawyers.
After nearly two weeks of public outcry, legal pressure, and activist demands, the local government announced the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the whistleblower's explosive allegations.
Whistleblower points authorities to 13 alleged burial sites
Since the SIT was formed, the whistleblower — now under witness protection — has returned to the forests of Dharmasthala, cloaked in anonymity.
For the past few weeks, dressed in a black hooded jacket and a mask that reveals only his eyes, nose and mouth, he has been guiding police and forest officials to what he claims are burial sites he once kept secret.
The whistleblower led authorities to 13 locations, which were dug up in his presence. Investigators unearthed remains at two sites, including more than 100 bones, a human skull and a knotted saree.
In his complaint, the man described how his nightmare began soon after he was hired as a sanitation worker in 1995.
He said near the beginning of his employment, he started noticing corpses near the Nethravathi River, many of them women and girls.
"The absence of undergarments, torn clothes, and injuries to their private parts indicated brutal sexual assault on them. Some bodies also had acid burn marks," he said.
Sometimes, he claimed, he was told to bury the bodies. Other times, he was given diesel and ordered to burn them until no trace remained.
He says he was beaten and threatened into silence. The whistleblower belongs to the Dalit community — historically marginalised in India's caste hierarchy.
K V Dhananjay, one of the lawyers representing the whistleblower, says his client came forward not out of fear of the law — but fear of his own conscience.
"No-one was looking for these cases. There were no pending files," he told the ABC.
"The last burial, according to him, happened in 2014."
According to the whistleblower, the "mental torture" he was experiencing became unbearable, and in 2014 he fled Dharmasthala with his family.
"Since then, until now, we have been living in hiding in fear for our lives in a neighbouring state. We have been changing residences too," he said.
"However, I am still living under the burden of guilt that does not subside."
What makes the whistleblower's story even more chilling is how closely it mirrors what locals have whispered about for decades: a disturbing pattern of disappearances, unresolved rapes, and brutal murders of women and girls in and around Dharmasthala dating back to the 1970s.
While protests have been sporadic, they've never fully disappeared. In 1987, the town erupted after the rape and murder of 17-year-old Padmalatha — a case locals allege was buried.
In 2012 a teenage girl's body was found in a forest, and public anger surged again with the "Justice for Sowjanya" movement.
That case, too, remains unresolved.
'I have so much rage in me'
Among those closely watching the current investigation is Kusumavathi, the mother of Sowjanya, the 17-year-old who was raped and murdered in 2012.
While Sowjanya's case isn't formally linked to the whistleblower's revelations, Kusumavathi is urging the SIT to include her daughter's case in the probe.
"I could never have anticipated the scenario my daughter was found in," she told the ABC.
Thirteen years later, the memory is still seared into Kusumavathi's memory.
"Her hands were tied to the back of a plant, there was not even a piece of cloth on her bare body," she said.
"She had bite marks, and her vaginal area was stuffed with soil."
Activists say the act was likely intended to destroy evidence of sexual assault.
Kusumavathi says she named multiple suspects in her complaint and alleged gang rape, but only one man was arrested and later acquitted due to lack of evidence.
"I have so much rage in me, but we are following the path of law and order," she said.
"It makes me feel like a woman's life has no value."
Allegations spark fresh complaint
Girish Mattannavar, a former police officer and BJP member, became an activist after being moved by Sowjanya's story and her mother's decade-long fight for justice.
"I have two daughters, and tomorrow I am accountable to my daughter's safety," he said.
But amid the outrage, something else is happening too.
"Already, we are getting calls," he said.
Over the years, Mr Mattannavar has tracked multiple unsolved crimes in the region. He says since the whistleblower went public at least two families with missing loved ones have contacted him with renewed hope they will be found.
"Everybody's blood is boiling," he said.
"Many people lost their children, their sisters, their fathers, they're lost. But everyone has faith in the justice [system]".
On July 15, Sujatha Bhat became the first person to file a fresh police complaint since the whistleblower went public.
She named her daughter, Ananya Bhat, a 19-year-old medical student who vanished in 2003 during a class trip to Dharmasthala and never came back.
At the time, Sujatha was working as a stenographer with the Central Bureau of Investigation in Kolkata. She claims police refused to file a missing persons report and says she was threatened and assaulted by other people.
She has lived with the silence, the fear, and the unknown for over two decades.
But when news of the whistleblower broke — the remains submitted to court, the stories of young girls buried in secret — something shifted. For the first time in 22 years, Sujatha found herself holding onto the fragile possibility that her daughter's remains might finally be found.
"I have been living a life of fear and despair for many years," she wrote.
"Performing the traditional final rites for deceased bodies is a very important duty in life. If I fail to do so, as a mother, I will not be able to find atonement."
Ananya Bhat is the first person to be named in a fresh police complaint since the SIT was formed.
Temple welcomes investigation
In a public statement on July 20, the temple authorities said they welcomed a "fair and transparent" investigation and urged the SIT to uncover the truth.
"Truth and belief form the foundation of a society's ethics and values", said the temple's official spokesperson.
"We sincerely hope and strongly urge the SIT to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation and bring the true facts to light."
The Dharmasthala temple has existed for 800 years, controlled over the centuries by various generations of the powerful Heggade family.
The temple's current hereditary administrator, Veerendra Heggade, assumed the role in 1968 at the age of 19.
A recipient of the Padma Vibhushan — India's second-highest civilian honour — Mr Heggade is also a member of the Rajya Sabha, India's upper house of parliament.
He has not been implicated in the case and there is no suggestion he is involved.
The Heggade family wields significant influence in the region, overseeing a vast network of educational, religious, and philanthropic institutions.
They have thousands of employees across the Dharmasthala region.
