Police personnel deployed at the residence of Sujatha Bhat at Padmanabhanagar in Bengaluru on Saturday.
Credit: DH Photo/B K Janardhan
Bengaluru: Even as the Special Investigation Team arrested the complainant-witness in the alleged Dharmasthala mass burial case, police personnel were deployed for security of Sujatha Bhat, the woman at the centre of the case on Saturday.
A total of 15 cops have been deployed for the safety of Sujatha who lives in an old rented flat Padmanabhanagar, Banashankari third stage.
A police officer present at the scene told DH, “We are here for security purposes until the Special Investigation Team (SIT) arrives.” He further stated that when many media reporters gathered to speak with her, she allegedly said, ‘It’s enough for me, I won’t talk to anyone,’ and threatened to commit suicide.
The last few days have been a stream of contradictory claims from Sujatha, who had for weeks captivated the state with her harrowing tale of a “missing daughter, Ananya Bhat.” Now, in her recent confession to a Kannada news channel, she claimed that the entire story was a fabrication and she had no daughter. She further stated it’s her friend’s daughter.
The quiet, middle-class neighbourhood is now under a media scanner. When approached for a comment, residents were guarded, many of them hesitant to speak on the record.
“She was a very private person,” one elderly neighbour, who lives in the area for over two decades, said. “We would see her occasionally, but she kept to herself. This entire thing is shocking.”
The officer added that none of her neighbours seemed to know her personally, she was living in isolation and they mentioned that one of her neighbours saw her selling Kashayas (medicinal beverages) near a park.