Karnataka HC Orders Detailed Account of Police Probe in Dharmasthala 'Mass Burial' Case

Overview

• The state must file a comprehensive statement detailing investigative steps taken in multiple deaths and disappearances linked to Dharmasthala.
• Petitioners allege at least 74 unnatural deaths and say police failed to conduct mandatory inquests and post-mortems under Section 174(3) of the CrPC.
• The PIL seeks directions to register 74 separate FIRs, locate suspected burial sites, exhume remains, perform DNA identification, and establish causes of death through forensic pathology.
• State counsel told the court that records up to 2010 were destroyed under a government circular, records after 2010 remain available, and the petition was filed nearly two decades after some alleged incidents.
• The SIT has led the probe since July 2025, reported limited success in recovering remains, and previously arrested the sanitation worker whose FIR triggered the case for allegedly misleading police.