In India, a man who claimed to have buried more than 100 girls who were raped and then murdered at a temple has been arrested

Police in India have arrested the man who recently claimed that he was forced to bury the bodies of dozens of women who had first been raped and then murdered.

His shocking claims have shaken Dharmasthala, a small religious town in the southern Indian state of Karnataka.

The town is home to the centuries-old Manjunatha Swamy Temple, which is dedicated to Lord Shiva, one of Hinduism’s three supreme deities. The temple attracts thousands of devotees every day and is central to the lives of the local people.

Following political controversy in the state, the government set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate these allegations.

An SIT official, speaking to the BBC on condition of anonymity, said that the man was arrested on charges of perjury—giving a false statement.

In early July, the middle-aged man had filed a complaint with the police and recorded a statement before a magistrate. His identity has not been revealed, and in public he has so far appeared wearing black clothes, a mask, and a helmet.

The complaint filed with the police, seen by the BBC, stated that he had worked as a cleaner at the temple between 1995 and 2014.

He alleged that during this time, he was forced to bury the bodies of hundreds of girls and women who had been brutally raped and then killed.

He described in detail five such incidents and said that there were many more. He also claimed that some of the victims were minors.

The man said that he had been in hiding since 2014 but returned now because his conscience compelled him to reveal everything.

The cleaner did not name any individual but blamed the temple administration and staff. The temple chief dismissed the allegations as “false and baseless.”

When he appeared before the magistrate, he took a human skull out of his bag as evidence, claiming it was from a body he had buried, which he had recently dug up again.

An SIT officer said that the skull and bones had not been brought from the location where he had claimed the bodies were buried.

His arrest on Saturday gave the entire case a new and dramatic twist, causing an uproar both within and outside the state.

The former cleaner’s allegations had received wide media coverage. Following concern expressed by the State Women’s Commission, the government launched a major investigation and formed the SIT.

For several weeks, the team carried out excavations in Dharmasthala and surrounding areas to verify the claims. The man had initially identified 13 sites, some deep inside dense forests where poisonous snakes were also reported.

SIT sources told the BBC that human remains—including a skull and nearly 100 bone fragments—had been recovered from two sites and sent for forensic testing. It is not yet clear who these remains belong to.

The allegations also drew attention to the powerful Heggade family, hereditary administrators of the temple.

The temple’s chief administrator, Veerendra Heggade—a member of India’s upper house of parliament, the Rajya Sabha, and recipient of the country’s second-highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2015—issued a statement to the BBC welcoming the SIT investigation.

He wrote: “We are truly grateful to the government for aippointing an SIT to investigate the alleged unnatural deaths in Dharmasthala.”

He added: “We are fully cooperating with the investigation. We have complete faith in our judiciary, investigative agencies, and the Constitution of India.”

Later, speaking to the Indian news agency PTI, he described the former employee’s allegations as “impossible” and said, “This matter should now be cleared once and for all.”

The allegations also sparked a major political controversy. In the recent state assembly session, opposition BJP members described it as a “defamation campaign” against a Hindu religious site with millions of devotees.

The state is ruled by the Congress party. State Home Minister G. Parameshwara said the government had no intention of protecting anyone or defaming anyone.

He said: “Shouldn’t the truth come out? If nothing is found, Dharmasthala’s glory will only increase. If something is proven, justice will definitely be served.”