The trust has faced several challenges, but Rao said one of the steepest has been getting authorities to investigate the alleged illegal activities of the organisation that runs the Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala Manjunatha Swamy Temple in the temple town of Dharmasthala. The organisation is headed by the hereditary administrator Veerendra Heggade, whom the union government nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2022.
Rao’s assertions are particularly striking in light of the recent allegations by an anonymous whistleblower, who had worked for many decades at the temple, and who said temple authorities had forced him to secretly bury several bodies between 1995 and 2014.
He alleged that most of the bodies were of women, and showed signs of sexual assault and violence, such as strangulation. In July, the Karnataka government launched a Special Investigation Team probe into the allegations, and began visiting sites where the whistleblower said he had buried bodies.