Follow TNM’s WhatsApp channel for news updates and story links.
A large protest was held at Freedom Park in Bengaluru on Thursday, September 25, demanding justice for several unsolved rapes and murders of women in Dharmasthala in Dakshina Kannada district and other alleged crimes in the temple town.
A few hundred people from across the state, including from Belthangady in Dakshina Kannada district, gathered at Freedom Park for a ‘nyaya samavesha’ (convention for justice) under the aegis of the Dharmasthala Dourjanya Virodhi Vedike. The Vedike demanded an end to the ‘hidden parallel government’ in Dharmasthala and to alleged feudal crimes.
Through the day, the protestors raised slogans demanding justice for the murders of several women over a period of over 40 years in Dharmasthala.
These include Sowjanya, a 17-year-old raped and murdered in 2012; Padmalatha, the daughter of a local Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader who was kidnapped and her body found in 1987; and school teacher Vedavalli who was set on fire in 1979. The protestors also demanded justice for Narayana, who worked as an elephant mahout in the Dharmasthala temple, and his sister Yamuna, who were murdered in 2012, allegedly over a land dispute.
The real killers in any of these cases were never found by the police. Local activists have maintained for years that the police botched the investigation to protect powerful people.
These murders came up repeatedly during speeches made during the protest in Bengaluru. However, speakers also talked about other alleged crimes that had occurred in and around Dharmasthala over a period of several decades.
‘Vedavalli, Padmalatha, Sowjanya, are not flowers, they are fire,” advocate S Balan said, referencing lines from the popular Telugu film Pushpa, and drawing a roar from the crowd.
Among other songs sung during the protest was a song composed about the injustice committed against Sowjanya, the tune set to the raga of the hymn Aigiri Nandini.
Recalling the protest of a few thousand people in Hassan town last year which achieved justice for the women allegedly raped by Prajwal Revanna, activist Subhashini Ali, said, “In Hassan it was one evil man, here it is a whole system. The system in Dharmasthala is the system of manuvaad. We have to fight against manuvaad if we want justice equality in our country. People in Dharmasthala had land power, religious power, money power. How did they use this power? To take away the land of Dalits and poor people in the last 50 years.”
Subhashini Ali, who is also Communist Party of India (Marxist) Politburo member, raised the slogan ‘Dharmasthala, men adharm nahi chalega’ (Adharm in Dharmasthala will not be tolerated), which the gathering repeated after her.
Other speakers included Mavalli Shankar of the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, writer SG Siddaramaiah, activist and writer K Neela. Several other prominent personalities of the state such as Banjagere Jayaprakash, Du Saraswati, Agrahara Krishnamurthy, Moodnakudu Chinnaswamy, Indudhara Honnapura, Vijayamma, Chukki Nanjundaswamy, Janagere Venkataramayya, extended their support.
Saffron shawls
For the past decade, two ideologically opposed movements have organised a series of protests demanding justice for Sowjanya. One is by left and progressive organisations and the other is led by Hindutva activist Mahesh Shetty Thimarodi.
However, for the first time during the protest in Bengaluru, which was organised to demand justice not just for Sowjanya, but also other alleged crimes in Dharmasthala, a handful of saffron shawls were seen at the protest venue along with the odd red shawl. Saffron shawls worn by hundreds of young men are a common sight at protests led by Thimarodi, but a rare one in protests led by progressive organisations.
Another development unusual for the trajectory of the protests demanding justice in Dharmasthala was police-officer-turned-activist Girish Mattanavar being invited to the protest. Girish is associated with Thimarodi and part of the Hindutva faction which is also demanding justice for Sowjanya. He spoke at length about the alleged lapses in the investigation of the rape and murder of Sowjanya.
Demands
In a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister, the Dharmasthala Dourjanya Virodhi Vedike demanded that the Special Investigation Team be allowed to investigate freely without political pressure.
The Vedike made it clear that the protest organised by the Vedike had nothing to do with the complaint given by Chinnaiah; however, the vedike urged the state urged the government to ensure that Chinnaiah’s complaint was also investigated thoroughly.
“After saying that he buried many bodies, why did he suddenly change his statement? The SIT must investigate the allurements and pressure behind that… the change in the stance of the approver (Chinnaiah) must be investigated,” the memorandum said.
The Vedike also demanded that the government stop targeting people who are demanding justice for alleged crimes in Dharmasthala.
They demanded a reinvestigation into the murders of Sowjanya and Padmalatha and the re-opening of the investigation into the murder of the siblings Narayana and Yamuna.
The Vedike also demanded a separate Special Investigation Team to investigate several instances of alleged land grab in and around Dharmasthala. They demanded the recovery of over 43 acres of DC Manna land (land reserved for Dalits during the administration of the Madras Presidency) in Ujire village granted to non-Dalits and if that is not possible, setting aside 43 acres elsewhere and granting it to landless Dalits.
They also demanded an investigation into several unnatural deaths, murders and suicides that had occurred in and around Dharmasthala in the past 20 years.