Dharmasthala mass burial case

In July 2025, an investigation into allegations of murders and mass burials in the Indian temple town of Dharmasthala, Karnataka, was opened. The chief complainant alleged that he was coerced into burying over one hundred bodies of women and minors, many bearing signs of sexual violence, and witnessed poor beggars tied to chairs and suffocated with towels. In another complaint in August 2025, a local activist alleged that he observed a body being buried fifteen years earlier. The temple has long been the subject of protests by local families and political groups, including demonstrations in 2012 following the murder of a teenage girl.

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) was created to probe the allegations. The complainant identified thirteen burial spots at which the SIT began the process of exhuming bodies. As of 4 August 2025, eleven sites have been excavated among the thirteen identified by the complainant. No human remains have been found at nine sites, one of them has yielded a partial skeleton, and a human skull and bones were found at another. On 23 August 2025, the complainant was arrested for perjury for lying on oath and his identity was revealed. However, the SIT said that investigation will continue and would be expanded to vet FIRs filed elsewhere in Karnataka and neighboring states about the "disappearance of pilgrims" visiting the temple town.