Dharmasthala Gram Panchayat officials have said that the panchayat has records dating back to the late 1980s for all the unclaimed bodies found in the village.
Panchayat vice president Shrinivas Rao made these assertions at a press conference, denying claims made by a man that he was coerced into secretly burying many bodies. The man had said, a few days ago, that the bodies included those of women and girls who appeared to have been sexually assaulted between 1995 and 2014, while he was employed with the Dharmasthala temple.
The man, whose identity is not known, has filed a complaint with the Dharmasthala police station through his lawyers and has applied for witness protection.
Replying to a question, Shrinivas said that records for the burials of unclaimed bodies were available in the annual audit reports of the panchayat since 1989 and said that the number of such bodies had risen when the visitors to the temple increased.
“There are people who are interested in doing this work (disposing of bodies). The person who does such work must be mentally strong; they must be able to keep their emotions aside… We look for such people and get this work done… We use someone with the skills required for this work, and we pay them for it. There are vouchers in their names. We have all these documents in the panchayat and they are signed by gazetted officers,” Shrinivas told the media.
He also said that there have even been instances when family members turned up two days after the burial, and the respective body was then handed over to them by the police, and that there were documents for this, too.
He further explained that when members of the public report unknown dead bodies, the police issue a notice in the newspapers asking relatives to identify the person. The body is kept for a week, and if no one claims it, the police register an Unnatural Death Report (UDR) and inform either the local body or the health department to undertake the burial. He further clarified that the panchayat had disposed of all the unclaimed bodies that had been found and that it had records for each body going back several years.
He also said that thousands of people come to the Dharmasthala temple and that “not all come with a mindset of devotion to god”. He claimed that one famous actor had once said that they came to Dharmasthala to die by suicide, but had later changed their mind.
Responding to a question, Shrinivas said that in 2010, when he was a member of the panchayat, there were statements that over 400 bodies were found in the village and its vicinity. “No such thing happened either in the temple or in the village. These are conspiracies and fabricated statements. All unnatural deaths have been documented, and we have mentioned why they happened,” he stated.
“There are a lot of statements (about the unnatural deaths), but our system is sound. We have all the documents regarding births and deaths. If someone buries bodies without informing the panchayat, it is a big offence,” he added.
He also said that in many instances, the panchayat had even saved people who might have otherwise drowned. “We have a drowning expert as an employee. Within the golden hour, we have managed to rescue some people and save them. This drowning expert is also paid, and the payment documents are with us,” Shrinivas said.
To a question, Shrinivas said that the panchayat does not have a permanent employee on its rolls to dispose of dead bodies. “We don’t have an employee specifically for body disposal. In 2002-03, there were no unnatural deaths… We hire people as the need arises, and pay them and give them a receipt. It is not that we will look for a specific person; anyone can do it. We can give you the information under the Right to Information.”
Asked for the documents, he said that the panchayat would provide records under the RTI and that the matter is in court, so it would be inappropriate to say too much.