Her statement has turned the case upside down, as her earlier claims had triggered a storm of allegations involving missing women, sexual assault, and mass burials.
In a major twist to the Dharmasthala controversy, Sujatha Bhat from Bengaluru has admitted that she fabricated her earlier allegations. She now says her daughter, Ananya Bhat, whom she claimed went missing in 2003, never existed.
“It is not true. There was never any daughter named Ananya Bhat,” Sujatha confessed in a recent interview.
Her statement has turned the case upside down, as her earlier claims had triggered a storm of allegations involving missing women, sexual assault, and mass burials.
Speaking to a YouTube channel, Sujatha explained that activists persuaded her to make false allegations. She named Girish Mattannavar and T Jayanti as the people who pushed her into fabricating the story.
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"Some people told me to say it. I was asked to do it because of the property issue. That’s the only reason,” she said.
She also clarified that money was never her motive. “I never needed money...”
In her first complaint, Sujatha had made sensational claims. She said her daughter, an 18-year-old medical student, went missing in Dharmasthala in May 2003. She also told police that she was abducted, tied up, threatened not to return to Dharmasthala, and left in a coma.
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Her account sparked huge outrage. People accused temple authorities of hiding mass burials and covering up crimes. The Karnataka government even formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the matter.
Now, with Sujatha withdrawing her statement, those claims stand exposed.
Realising the anger her story created, Sujatha has apologised to the people of Karnataka.
“Yes, for the people of Karnataka, for the devotees of Dharmasthala... I ask the people of this state, and the whole country, to forgive me...” she said.
Meanwhile, the SIT has arrested a man who had also made serious allegations about Dharmasthala. He claimed mass murders, rapes, and secret burials took place between 1995 and 2014 when he worked there as a sanitation staffer.
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According to SIT officials, the man said he buried the bodies of women and children, some of whom showed signs of sexual assault. He even recorded a statement before a magistrate.
However, the SIT found discrepancies in his testimony and arrested him after questioning.
The Dharmasthala case became one of Karnataka’s most sensational controversies. But with Sujatha admitting she lied and SIT questioning other claims, the narrative has dramatically shifted.
The investigation continues as authorities try to separate fact from fiction in one of the state’s most sensitive disputes.
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