A man who claims rapes and secret funerals in an arrested city of the Dharmasthala Temple

Police in India have arrested a man who has recently claimed to have been forced to bury one hundred bodies of women who were raped before being killed.

His frightening claims had thrown the tiny religious city of Dharmasthala in the southern Karnakaka in turmoil.

The home of the centuries -old temple next to the Swami Manchuna – the embodiment of Shiva from the Holy Holy Trinity – the city attracts thousands of worshipers on a daily basis and is central to the fabric of the life of the local people.

A political dispute in the country has led the government to create a special investigative team (SIT) to verify the man’s claims.

A SIT employee who did not want to be baptized, told the BBC on Saturday morning that the man “had been arrested for perjury.”

In early July, a middle -aged man filed a complaint with the police and appeared to a magistrate to record his statement. His identity has been withheld and so far he has appeared in a public place, dressed entirely in black, including a hood and a face mask.

In the police complaint he would see, the man said he worked as a cleaner in the temple from 1995 to 2014 – and claims that he was forced to bury the bodies of hundreds of girls and young women who were cruelly raped and killed.

He told five alleged incidents where he gave specific data and said there were many more. Some of the victims, the man claims, were minors.

He said he had been hiding since 2014 and returned and spoke to remain silent.

The wiper did not indicate anyone but accused the “temple administration and its staff” – accusations The chief of the temple rejected as “fake and unfounded”S

When he was taken to the magistrate, the man continued to produce a human skull from his bag as evidence. He said he belonged to a body he buried and that he had recently drawn it out of the place.

“The skull and skeletal remains he produced were not brought from any place in which he claims to have buried the bodies,” said the SIT employee.

The arrest on Saturday comes as a major bend in a saga, which left a fire storm within the state and outside.

The allegations received intensive media coverage. After fears were raised by the State Committee on Women, the government has launched a major criminal investigation and has set up SIT.

In the last few weeks, the team has been excavating at Mesta in and around Dharmasthala to check the man’s allegations. Initially, he identified 13 spots of them in inaccessible areas covered by dense greenery and, according to messages infected with poisonous snakes.

SIT sources have confirmed to the BBC that human remains, including a skull and nearly 100 bone fragments, have been found in two of the seats and have been sent for forensics. It is not clear to who they belong.

The allegations also place the spotlights on the influential family of Hegade – hereditary administrators of the temple.

In a statement to the BBC, Chief Administrator Verera Hegade, a deputy in the upper house of the Indian Parliament, who received the second highest civil award in the country Padma Vibhushan in 2015, welcomed the SIT investigation.

The temple “really appreciates the government for the appointment of SIT to investigate the alleged unnatural death, which is said to have occurred in and around Dharmasthala,” he writes.

“We are already expanding full support for the investigation. We have complete faith in our judicial and investigative agency and a constitution of India,” he added.

In interview With the Indian news agency PTI, he later called the former cleaner “impossible” and said “once and for all you have to come out the truth.”

The allegations also led to a huge political order – the question was discussed in the newly completed session of the State Assembly, with BJP opposition members calling it a “Campaign for Grease” against the Hindu religious site that has millions of loyals.

The Interior Minister G Parameshwara of the State Government Party of Congress has said that the government has no intention of protecting anyone or abusing anyone.

“Shouldn’t the truth come out?” he asked. “If nothing is found, the growth of the Dharmasthala will only intensify. If something appears, justice will be betrayed, “he added.