On July 15, Sujatha Bhat, who claimed to have worked as a stenographer at the CBI office in Kolkata, had told police that her daughter Ananya Bhat, a medical student at Manipal, had gone missing while visiting the Dharmasthala temple with friends in 2003. She had alleged that her daughter vanished under mysterious circumstances and sought that if skeletal remains were found during the SIT-led exhumation in Dharmasthala, they be handed over to her so that she could perform the last rites as per Hindu tradition
Mangaluru: A video of Sujatha Bhat has surfaced on social media in which she retracts her earlier claim about her daughter’s disappearance at Dharmasthala in 2003, saying she never had a daughter and the story was fabricated under the influence of others.
On July 15, Sujatha Bhat, who claimed to have worked as a stenographer at the CBI office in Kolkata, had told police that her daughter Ananya Bhat, a medical student at Manipal, had gone missing while visiting the Dharmasthala temple with friends in 2003. She had alleged that her daughter vanished under mysterious circumstances and sought that if skeletal remains were found during the SIT-led exhumation in Dharmasthala, they be handed over to her so that she could perform the last rites as per Hindu tradition.
Following her plea, the case was handed over to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged “secret burials” in Dharmasthala.
However, in the video interview with INSIGHTRUSH YouTube channel that surfaced on Friday night, Sujatha is heard retracting her earlier claim about her daughter’s disappearance.
“I did not have a daughter named Ananya Bhat. Some people asked me to say so, and I did,” she told the interviewer and added “Girish Mattannavar and Jayant T told me to make that claim,” she is heard saying.
She further alleged that she was provoked into making false statements due to disputes over her ancestral property. In the video, she claims that her grandfather’s property was given away (to Dharmasthala) without her consent and signatures, and that she was hurt by the way family matters were handled.
"I don't want money or property. But they should have asked me or taken my signature. The person who took the property too should have checked the family tree. I was hurt that our family deity and property was given to Jains. They could have been given to some other trust," she added.
“I did not bring a bad name to Dharmasthala or the Heggade family. I was provoked into making this claim,” she added.
However, interestingly, in an interview to some electronic media later, Sujatha Bhat claimed that she was forced to retract her statement.
