Bengaluru, Sept. 17 -- In a significant development in the 2012 Sowjanya rape and murder case, the Karnataka High Court has issued a notice to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) on a public interest litigation alleging decades-old clandestine deaths and secret burials in Dharmasthala village, Dakshina Kannada district.
The petition, filed by Purandara Gowda - maternal uncle of 17-year-old Sowjanya - along with Tukaram Gowda, claimed that several bodies of rape, murder and disappearance victims were illegally buried in and around Dharmasthala over the years. The plea sought an empowered SIT probe and court monitoring to ensure transparency.
According to the PIL, a former sanitation worker who served in Dharmasthala between 1995 and 2014 ...