If one looked at the media coverage in Karnataka on October 9 and 10, one would not know that scores of people across the state took to the streets demanding justice for Sowjanya, a 17-year-old college student who was raped and killed 13 years ago. Her unsolved rape and murder has become a rallying point for many other unsolved crimes in Dharmasthala since the 1980s .
The Dharmasthala Dourjanya Virodhi Vedike, comprising concerned citizens including writers, lawyers and activists from across the state, organised protests in 60 locations in 15 districts across the state on October 9—the day Sowjanya was raped and murdered. The protests will continue until her birthday on October 18.
According to the organisers, protests, book releases, candle light marches, were carried out in 60 locations in 15 districts across the state, including 14 locations each in Dakshina Kannada district, which is where Dharmasthala is located, and in Bengaluru. Other districts where protests were held include Mandya, Mysuru, Bengaluru South, Vijayanagara, Tumakuru, Kodagu, Bidar, Haveri, Kolar, Raichur, Kalaburagi, Ballari, and Hassan.
Very few mainstream media houses, both English and Kannada, covered the protest campaign. Even when they did, they were isolated reports from a district and were carried in the local editions of the newspaper or accessible online. Some of the mostly widely watched television news channels and widely circulated newspapers in Karnataka did not even mention that these protests were held across the state.
The Dharmasthala Dourjanya Virodhi Vedike had held a protest in Bengaluru on September 25, demanding justice for other victims in Dharmasthala, including siblings Narayana and Yamuna, who were allegedly murdered over a land dispute; Padmalatha, a teenager who went missing in December 1986 and whose body was found two months later; and Vedavalli, a school teacher who was burned in 1979. The Vedike had also called for an investigation into other complaints of alleged land grab, murders, rapes, the gobbling up of DC Manna land (Depressed Classes Reserved land) in Dharmasthala.
Muneer Katipalla, a member of the Dharmasthala Dourjanya Virodhi Vedike, said that the blackout in the mainstream media was deliberate.
“The lack of coverage in the mainstream media of protests is deliberate. Yesterday, there was visible public anger during the protests on the government’s inaction and the SIT’s failure to investigate the complaints seriously,” he said.
He also took objection to the government’s lackadaisical attitude towards complaints of alleged land grab, murders, rapes, the gobbling up of DC Manna land (Depressed Classes Reserved land),
“There is an attempt to portray the campaign for justice for Sowjanya as a conspiracy against the Dharmasthala temple. Through the protests across the state yesterday, we have conveyed to the government that the grievances of the people of Dharmasthala are genuine. The government should, at least now, ensure a course correction and convey to the people that it will stand by the victims in Dharmasthala and ensure that the SIT investigates the complaints fairly.”
