The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday, March 17 pulled up the state government over gaps in police investigations into a series of unnatural deaths at Dharmasthala in Karnataka, directing it to submit a detailed account of all steps taken in the cases.
The court was hearing a PIL alleging that police did not investigate at least 74 unnatural deaths in Dharmasthala as mandated under Section 174(3) of the CrPC. Counsel for the petitioners argued before the Division Bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice CM Poonacha that the police failed to conduct proper inquest proceedings and post-mortems in each of these cases.
The state, however, submitted that police destroyed all records relating to unnatural deaths in Dharmasthala up to 2010 in line with a government circular as part of an administrative procedure. Records post-2010 were available, the government said, while also questioning the delay in filing the PIL nearly 20 years after the alleged incidents.
The Bench noted that deaths involving fatal injuries, particularly of young persons, squarely fall under the category of unnatural deaths that require proper investigation. “If a 20-year-old dies due to a fatal wound, it's an unnatural death… if it was not a disease,” the court orally remarked according to Live Law.
State counsel also told the court that no documents were available for 2002 and that records for other years had been pulled out. “We will trace the available records,” counsel said, adding that it may not be possible to determine what investigations were carried out in cases prior to 2010.
The petition was filed by Kusumavathi, mother of Sowjanya, the 17-year-old girl who was raped and murdered near Dharmasthala in 2012. The plea states that on October 11, 2025, she submitted a representation to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted by the state government in July 2025 to probe allegations of mass burials, alleging that at least 74 Unnatural Death Reports (UDRs) in Dharmasthala were closed in violation of the CrPC and the Karnataka (Investigation of Unnatural Deaths and Conduct Inquests) Rules, 2004.
She further alleged that in all 74 cases, bodies were buried within 24 hours of death, indicating that mandatory inquest procedures had not been followed.
The PIL seeks a writ of mandamus directing the SIT to register 74 separate FIRs, one for each alleged unnatural death cited in the 2025 representation. It also seeks the identification of burial sites, exhumation of human remains, DNA testing to establish the identity of victims and determination of the cause of death through forensic pathology.
The petition asked the court to direct the SIT to identify witnesses, take action against officials who failed to follow mandatory procedures while registering UDRs and file monthly status reports before the High Court.
The court has now sought a detailed statement from the state on the material facts of all investigations conducted into the alleged deaths and disappearances. The matter has been posted to July 9.