Sujata Bhat - the elderly Kannada woman who claimed her daughter went missing in Dharmasthala, a Karnataka village at the centre of a mass burial controversy involving sordid allegations of sexual abuse and murder - lied about her 'child', sources told NDTV Friday.
Sources said Sujata - whose second name is not Bhat, NDTV was also told - confessed to not having a daughter after two days of questioning. The police are now working out the next steps.
Last week Sujata completed a hat-trick of claims regarding her 'daughter', who, she had first claimed went 'missing' during a college trip to Dharmasthala.
She told NDTV she had been forced to deny the existence of 'Ananya Bhat' by a YouTube channel interviewing her. "It's true, I have a daughter. The YouTube channel made me say that..."
That was weeks after she told the YouTuber 'Ananya', a medical student, never existed.
READ | Another U-Turn In Karnataka Mass Burial Case, Woman Blames YouTuber
And that was after her initial claim, that 'Ananya' had gone missing.
There are also reports Sujata's family is involved in a property dispute with the temple.
Normally a small and sleepy village, with only a temple to mark it as a major pilgrimage centre for Hindus, Dharmasthala is now caught up in a major row after a man claimed he was forced to bury and cremate around a hundred women, some of whom were sexually assaulted.
He claimed some of the buried women had been raped and demanded protection in exchange for information about identities, burial spots, and the identity of their attacker or attackers.
Over fifty days after Dharmasthala resident CN Chinnayya, alias Chenna, approached local police with his explosive 'confession', human remains have been found only in two spots.
The sites where human remains were found were located near a river. Given the 100-odd bone fragments, investigators assume that they could be from one or two bodies.
READ | Big Twist In Dharmasthala 'Mass Burial' Case, Complainant Arrested
And Chenna, who earlier maintained the drama quotient by appearing with his face masked and carrying a human skull, has been arrested. The police now say his allegations are 'fabricated', a charge strengthened by Chenna's former wife and associates calling him a "habitual liar".
Chenna, the complainant in the Dharmasthala mass burial controversy.
As, it now also appears, were claims by Sujata about her daughter, 'Ananya'.
That said, for decades now, there have been rumours about girls and women disappearing from Dharmasthala and ending up dead. There have also been allegations of institutional cover-ups.
The first goes back to 1987; Padmalatha, a 17-year-old girl, was found dead. Her family alleged rape and murder. The case was never solved. Then, in 2012, 17-year-old Sowjanya was found raped and murdered. Her body was found a day after she was declared missing.
Decoding Dharmasthala Row | A Masked Man, A Skull, And Mass Grave Claims
Unconfirmed reports put the number of missing persons at around 400.
Either way, the allegations have sparked a political row.
The opposition BJP organised a march to protest what it called 'a conspiracy to defame the temple'. The ruling Congress has said state police force will get to the bottom of the mystery.
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