Bengaluru: What was first portrayed as a grieving mother’s quest for justice in the Dharmasthala row is now being seen as a possible attempt to tarnish the temple’s image for personal benefit. Allegations made by Sujatha Bhat about her ‘missing daughter’ Ananya Bhat, supposedly an MBBS student at Manipal, have unravelled into a series of glaring contradictions, false timelines, and unverifiable claims.
Sujatha, who recently went public with her complaint, alleged that her daughter disappeared during a 2003 trip to Dharmasthala with friends and was possibly assaulted. She claimed to have been working as a stenographer in the CBI’s Kolkata office until 2004, before moving to Bengaluru.
However, an investigation by the Organiser team based on testimonies, archival records, and official sources shows her narrative is riddled with inconsistencies.
Not Kolkata, but Ripponpet
Contrary to her Kolkata employment claim, local witnesses recall Sujatha living in Ripponpet, Shivamogga district, from 1999 to 2007 with one Prabhakar Baliga, a former bus agent from Udupi. The two never married, but were in a live-in relationship, which was common knowledge in the area.
Archival issues of Kamalvani and Sudha magazines from 2002–2003 featured the couple in human-interest stories, describing them as childless animal lovers who considered stray dogs their “children.” The newspaper cuttings still exist.
T.R. Krishnappa, a social activist and Baliga’s classmate, told Organiser: “We saw Sujatha here every day. She had no daughter. No one ever heard of an Ananya.”
In 2007, Sujatha is said to have left Baliga, a habitual drinker, moving to Bengaluru with the claim that she would be employed in a judge’s household; Baliga passed away two years later, in 2009.
Timeline contradictions and fake credentials
The CBI’s Kolkata office confirmed there was no staff member by Sujatha’s name between 1999 and 2010.
Her brother-in-law, Mahabala, said she studied only up to Class 10 and briefly worked in a Bengaluru provision store in the early 2000s.
The alleged Dharmasthala incident
Sujatha claims that after being informed by her daughter’s friend Rashmi, she rushed to the Beltangady police station from Kolkata to file a complaint, but she was not allowed to register it. She then approached Dharmadhikari Veerendra Heggade and his brother Harshendra Kumar, alleging they insulted her and refused help.
She further accused Dharmasthala temple staff of tying her to a chair, assaulting her, and then mysteriously shifting her to a Bengaluru hospital, despite Mangaluru being just 70 km away with better facilities.
She says she was in a coma for three months at Agadi Hospital, Wilson Garden. However, hospital records categorically state that no such patient was ever treated there during that period.
The most damning gap in her story remains the alleged daughter herself. Multiple independent sources from neighbours to acquaintances have stated they never saw or heard of Ananya Bhat.
Even in her years living with Baliga, no record, school admission, or photograph has emerged to prove Ananya’s existence. Instead, evidence points to Sujatha leading a different life entirely, unrelated to the identity she now presents.
With official records contradicting her employment claims, witness accounts negating the daughter’s existence, and hospital logs debunking her medical story, the focus has now shifted from a supposed missing person case to probing whether Sujatha fabricated the allegations to settle personal scores or secure personal advantage.
Devotees are urging Karnataka Police to treat this as a case of deliberate defamation of a centuries-old religious institution.
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