In the newly-renovated home of Chandappa and Kusumavati in Pangala village near Dharmasthala, a prominent place is accorded to their daughter Sowjanya in the living room. A picture captures the radiant smile of the 17-year-old, a reminder of happier times for the family. Her mother, Kusumavati, reveals a bittersweet truth. “Sowjanya never liked getting her pictures clicked,” she says with a tinge of sadness in her voice. Her daughter was averse to posing for photographs preferring to live in the moment, she says.
On October 9, 2012, Sowjanya was raped and killed near Snanaghatta in Dharmasthala. Eleven years later, her parents are still struggling with their grief for their daughter and the fight for justice. For them, the religious centre of Dharamasthala – located less than 3 kms from their village – draws conflicting emotions. While it has provided them with spiritual strength, it also carries the weight of their belief that Sowjanya’s killers were associated with the religious institution. “We pray to Dharmasthala Manjunatha, but our trust is shattered as we believe people associated with the institution did this to our child,” Kusumavati admits. In the ensuing investigation, the police focussed on Santhosh Rao, a tourist from Karkala, who was seen in the area and charged him with the murder. But, Sowjanya’s family was never convinced of his guilt and on June 16 this year, when he was acquitted, the family felt vindicated.
The family believes that the police shielded the real culprits because of their proximity to Veerendra Heggade, administrator of Dharmasthala temple and a Rajya Sabha MP.
Sowjanya, a second PU student at Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara College in Ujire, went missing on the evening of October 9. Her body was discovered on October 10 in a deserted place near the Nethravathi river, her hands bound with her own shawl to a tree. In the wake of Sowjanya's shocking murder, the town erupted in outrage and grief. The demand for justice was loud. But, with the acquittal of the lone accused Santhosh Rao by a Sessions court in Bengaluru on June 16 this year, the question remains. Who killed Sowjanya?
The wounds inflicted upon Sowjanya's family by the flawed investigation and subsequent acquittal are still raw. When TNM visited Sowjanya’s house, the family’s anguish was palpable.
Kusumavati recounts the day her daughter left for college and never returned home. “She had her whole life ahead of her, filled with dreams and aspirations. As she left our home, waving goodbye with a smile, I never could have imagined the horror that awaited us."
"We searched everywhere for her. As the evening wore on, she didn't return home. We reached out to anyone who could help, even Dharmadhikari Veerendra Heggade, desperately hoping to find Sowjanya. But, fate had dealt us the cruellest blow," she says.
Vittal Gowda, Sowjanya’s uncle, was the last known person to have seen Sowjanya alive. He remembers seeing her from his car while she was walking back home from the bus stop on the evening of October 9. He has transformed his car into a memorial for his late niece. Adorning the back of his vehicle is a prominently displayed picture of Sowjanya. The image of Sowjanya, smiling and full of life, now travels with Vittal wherever he goes. “I don’t want anyone to forget what happened to Sowjanya. My car is a constant reminder of the incident,” he says.
He expresses his lack of surprise at Santhosh's acquittal. "The police arrested an innocent person and failed to investigate the other three suspects – Malik Jain, Udaya Jain, and Dheeraj Khella Jain – from Dharmasthala," he said. Malik Jain, an accountant at Dharmasthala Trust, and Dheeraj, the son of a senior manager at Annapoorna Trust, were friends of Nischal Jain, nephew of Veerendra Heggade, the hereditary administrator of Dharmasthala temple. Heggade held a press conference to defend his nephew, stating that Nischal was in New York when Sowjanya was killed.
Vittal recalled that 300 locals had searched the entire area the night Sowjanya went missing. "The next day, mysteriously, the body appeared out of nowhere, in a spot that we had previously searched. These three individuals conveniently caught Santhosh," Vittal also adds that the Belthangady police collected Sowjanya's undergarments from her house and then tried to plant that as evidence. According to the judgement, there was no underwear found on Sowjanya’s body. "How could they find any forensic evidence from clean underwear?" Vittal questions.
Kusumavati says, “The underwear was taken from our house and placed as evidence by the police. Why did the police plant the underwear? That's when we knew that it was not Santhosh. They didn’t look into the Jains despite our pleas. They arrested a random guy and presented him as the killer.”
In November 2012, CID took over the case and found no evidence against Malik, Udaya and Dheeraj Jain. CBI took over in November 2013 but focused only on Santosh Rao. Sowjanya's father Chandappa filed a petition in court to include the three men as additional accused, which was later granted in November 2016. However, the Jain trio obtained a stay order from the Karnataka High Court in January 2021, halting their inclusion in the case. The Karnataka HC acknowledged that it would be unjust to include the three men as the trial was at an advanced stage. Recently, the Jains held a press conference saying that they had undergone brain mapping and polygraph tests and that the CID had given them a clean chit.
Kusumavati questions why the Jains got a stay order if they were innocent. “When they were summoned by the court, they got a stay order from HC. Why did they do that if they were innocent? The recent judgment acquitted Santhosh. Then who killed my daughter?”
Days after Sowjanya’s death, Pejawar seer Vishvesha Theertha Swami visited her family. The seer, known for his religious influence and revered status, allegedly implored Kusumavati to avoid linking the Heggade family to the heinous crime that claimed her daughter's life. He cautioned against tarnishing the reputation of Dharmasthala, the religious institution associated with the family. The seer allegedly pleaded with Kusumavati, saying, "Please don't involve the Heggade family in this. The culprits will face appropriate consequences. Don't tarnish Dharmastala's name. Leave it alone. Your daughter will find justice. Don't drag their name into it." Kusumavati adds that the seer gave her Rs 10,000 on behalf of his math, a religious institution.
Reinvestigation
In 2013, Siddaramaiah, then Chief Minister, transferred the case to CBI. Now again, Sowjanya's family seeks his intervention.
Kusumavati wants a Special Investigation Team to handle the case. She also demands action against the doctors who conducted a post-mortem on Sowjanya and Investigating officer Yogesh Kumar. Kusumavati told TNM, "We want justice for our daughter. I am living only to see the perpetrators get punished. They (the Jain trio) raped and killed my daughter. The police and CBI probes failed to investigate the real perpetrators, despite our repeated pleas."
Photographs by Bhuvan Malik
Editor’s Note: TNM has used Sowjanya’s name with written consent from her mother.