Family Urges SIT Probing Dharmasthala Secret Burials to Reopen 1986 Padmalatha Murder Case

Mangaluru: A 38-year-old case of alleged abduction, rape, and murder has resurfaced in Dakshina Kannada, with the victim’s sister urging the Special Investigation Team (SIT) — which is currently probing alleged secret burials in Dharmasthala — to exhume the remains for a fresh investigation.

In a petition, Indravathi said her younger sister, Padmalatha, was a second-year PUC student at SDM College, Ujire, when she went missing on December 22, 1986. Her decomposed body was found nearly two months later, on February 17, 1987, by the side of the Neriya stream.

Indravathi recalled that their family home was then in Boliyaru in Dharmasthala village, and that her father, the late Devananda — a CPI(M) leader — had led several agitations demanding justice. The government eventually ordered a CoD probe, and the issue was even discussed in the Legislative Assembly. The then minister Rachayya had visited their home and assured justice, she said. However, the case was later closed as “undetected.”

Stating that as the family believed it to be a planned abduction, rape, and murder, it had not cremated Padmalatha’s skeletal remains but buried them in the hope of future investigation.

“If the remains are exhumed and examined, it will confirm the murder. I am ready to give my statement,” she said in her petition, urging the SIT to reopen the case, identify the culprits, and prosecute them.

Speaking to reporters, she expressed confidence in SIT.

CPI(M) leader BM Bhat, who accompanied her, demanded action not only in Padmalatha’s case but also in other criminal incidents in the region.