Near historical Hampi, a heinous crime-OxBig News Network

Trigger warning: This story contains details of rape and murder. Please avoid reading if you’re distressed by the subject

Grief hangs heavy over the church at G. Udaygiri, a town in Odisha’s Kandhamal district, on March 13. Around 2,000 people from across the country have gathered here, each of them carrying memories of Bibhas Nayak. On March 6, Bibhas, a 29-year-old freelancer, died in Karnataka’s Koppal district, close to the UNESCO World Heritage site of Hampi, while trying to protect two women from sexual assault and violence.

The last ‘stories’ that Bibhas had posted on Instagram were from the monuments of Hampi, the last capital of the Hindu kingdom of the Vijayanagara empire (14th-16th Century CE), with the caption, “Never been so fascinated by ruins”. Bibhas, whose account reveals his zest for life and love for travel and adventure, had gone to Hampi after visiting Dhanushkodi and Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, and Kochi in Kerala. Hampi was the final leg of his south India tour.

“My brother would get into local trains, take buses, and stay under any roof that offered shelter from the rain. He managed his finances carefully, ensuring he could visit as many places as possible,” says Bibhas’ older sister, Bonhomie.

In Hampi, Bibhas, whom his friends describe as “affable”, quickly bonded with fellow travellers — Daniel, 23, from the U.S.; Pankaj, 43, from Nashik, Maharashtra; and Aliza*, 27, from Israel — and Karthika*, 29, who ran the homestay in Anegundi village, Koppal district, where all of them met.

“On March 6, Bibhas went rock climbing. Later, when someone pitched the idea of stargazing, he was excited,” says Akash Paul, Bibhas’ brother-in-law, who has heard the sequence of events from Pankaj and Daniel. “He and his friends went to an area near Anegundi. Three men approached the group, got into an argument with them about money, and started attacking them. When Bibhas and the others tried to stop them, they were pushed into the canal. Bibhas was an expert swimmer, but he couldn’t survive because he had suffered a head injury.”

The attackers allegedly gang-raped Aliza and Karthika at the spot, which is full of rocks and thorny bushes. The crime sent shockwaves through Hampi, a tourist destination which locals say has never seen such a crime in decades.

Bibhas was the son of Bijay Kumar Nayak, the 16th Moderator of the Church of North India (CNI) and Bishop of the Diocese of Agra, CNI. The last post on Bibhas’ Instagram, dated July 19, 2023, was a letter from a friend and reads like a prophecy: “Yes, when you leave this world, you take nothing with you but memories of what you did. Leave nothing undone. Or unsaid. We all want to be comfortable here on Earth, but having an abundance of things is not necessary. The best thing to remember is to keep on the right path with God. Everything else will fade away.”

A crime near a canal

On March 6, soon after dinner, Karthika, who hails from Tamil Nadu and has been running the homestay at Anegundi for the past four years, took Daniel, Aliza, Pankaj, and Bibhas stargazing.

According to Rajkumar, a resort owner, there are around 500 resorts and homestays within a 15-kilometre radius of Hampi, which has lush paddy fields and shrublands dotted with stone structures. Most of these are located in villages such as Anegundi, Basapura, Sanapura, Hanumana Halli, and Anjanahalli in Koppal on the northern side of the Tungabhadra river. The ancient stone monuments of Hampi, which are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), are located on the southern bank of the river in Vijayanagara district. The river serves as a border between Koppal and Vijayanagara, separating the ruins from the resorts and homestays.

Ravichandra, a local resident and the owner of a resort in Sanapura, who spoke to the survivors, says the group of five hopped onto scooters and left for Sanapura lake, located about 8 km from the homestay. At the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal bund, Daniel played his guitar, while the rest counted stars.

According to the police complaint filed by Karthika, three men approached the group on a motorcycle on the narrow bund road half an hour later. Speaking in Kannada, they asked where they could get petrol. “Sanapura,” she replied.

Her complaint says one of the men then came closer and demanded ₹100. Karthika refused to pay the strangers. When the other two men also began demanding money, Bibhas offered them ₹20. Enraged by the amount, the three men began verbally abusing the group and hitting them with stones and Daniel’s guitar. When Pankaj, Daniel, and Bibhas tried to stop two of the men from hitting the women, the third man pushed all three of them into the canal.

“Pankaj says he did not know how to swim, so Daniel came to his rescue,” says Ravichandra. Bibash tried to climb the canal bund. “But one of the attackers hit him on the head and he fell back into the canal,” says Ravichandra.

Meanwhile, according to the complaint, two of the attackers hit Karthika with stones and raped her. Seeing the third man assault Aliza, they joined him and raped her too. When the women’s screams got louder, the attackers snatched their mobile phones, took ₹9,500 in cash from Karthika, and vanished into the night.

When Daniel and Pankaj returned to the crime spot, they found that the women were bleeding, says Ravichandra. There was no sign of Bibhas. When the panic-stricken group could not find him, they went to the nearest resort.

Ravichandra, who was at a family function, received a distress call at about 11.30 p.m. from the resort. “I called some hoteliers and friends and asked them to rush to the resort and assist the group in every possible way,” he says. He adds that he called Somashekhar Juttal, the Circle Inspector of Police attached to Gangavathi Rural, and shared the location of the victims.

About past midnight, Ravichandra arrived at the resort. “The police were already there. Within a few minutes, an ambulance came and took the victims to a government hospital in Gangavathi (about 20 km away),” he says.

Ravichandra joined his friends and the police in the search for Bibhas. “We searched until 4 in the morning, but couldn’t find him,” he says.

On the morning of March 7, following the complaint lodged by Karthika, a First Information Report was registered at Gangavathi Rural police station under Sections 309(6) (robbery), 70(1) (gang rape), 109 (attempt to murder) read with 3(5) (joint criminal liability) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023.

The same day, the Koppal police recovered Bibhas’ body near a powerhouse gate at Mallapur in the district. Friends say Bibhas, who could “never make an enemy” and who was “the life of any gathering”, died trying to save lives.

At Bibhas’ memorial service, Jenipher Walker, whose older brother was Bibhas’ friend and who had flown down from Delhi to Odisha, says, “I don’t understand why anyone would be so angry with Bibhas. He knew nothing but kindness.”

Karthika, Aliza, Pankaj, and Daniel were treated for a couple of days and then discharged from the hospital. While a traumatised Karthika returned to the homestay, Aliza, who had been treated for injuries, wanted to go back to Israel, says Koppal Superintendent of Police Ram L. Arasiddi. The police accompanied her to the airport.

A search from the river to a beach

On March 7, the day Bibhas’ body was found, Arasiddi formed six teams to nab the culprits. “The teams examined the CCTV footage installed in the shops along the road connected to the crime spot,” says the officer investigating the case. “The footage led us to a locality that is predominantly inhabited by the working population in Gangavathi.” The police identified the three culprits as Mallesh Dasara (22), Chetan Sai (21), and Sharanabasavaraj (30). All three did irregular masonry work. The police found Mallesh and Chetan, but Sharanabasavaraj managed to escape.

“Two of the accused were arrested and have admitted to the crime. We are investigating whether they have any criminal background,” Arasiddi said at a press conference.

“Tracing Sharanabasavaraj was a challenge as he did not use a mobile phone. We kept all the phones of his close friends and relatives under surveillance in the hope that he would contact them,” says a police officer.

After escaping, the accused made his first call to one of the numbers that were under police surveillance. “He made the call from the mobile phone of a passer-by in Raichur and asked for money,” says the officer.

A police team reached Raichur and examined CCTV footage and found that Sharanabasavaraj had gone from the bus stand to the railway station. “Two trains had left the Raichur railway station — one for Bengaluru and the other for Chennai. Since he didn’t have money, we expected him to get down at Mantralayam in Andhra Pradesh to eat charity food at the Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt. But CCTV footage showed that he had not got down there,” the officer says.

The accused then made a second call, from Chennai, for money to another number that was under surveillance. “We caught him at a beach in Chennai on Sunday (March 9),” the officer says.

Tayamma, Sharanabasavaraj’s mother, who works as a labourer in Gangavathi, says, “My son worked as a construction labourer in Bengaluru and returned home a week ago. He has spoiled his life because of being in bad company. Mallesh used to steal material from construction sites and used to harass women. I had advised my son not to associate with him, but he didn’t listen.”

‘A safe destination’

According to C. Baranidharan, Deputy Superintending Archaeological Engineer, Hampi Circle, in 2024-25 (up to December), 5.8 lakh Indian tourists and 9,357 foreign tourists visited Hampi. Ravichandra says most of the foreign tourists are from Israel and Europe.

Resorts in the vicinity of the UNSECO World Heritage Site of Hampi.
| Photo Credit:
Sridhar Kavali

A majority of the local people around Hampi depend on tourism for their livelihood. While many of them work as taxi drivers, auto drivers, and tourist guides, others work in the hospitality industry and businesses that serve tourists.

“Many of the homestays are unregistered and operate without permission from the authorities,” says Shashikanth S. Shembelli, a local journalist. According to Nagaraj, Assistant Director of Tourism, Koppal, no homestay is registered with the department in the Anegundi area.

In 2020, the Hampi World Heritage Area Management Authority with the help of the local administration demolished all the illegal resorts on the Virupapura Gaddi islet, created by the Tungabhadra river. There had been representations by the local communities about alcohol and drug abuse, followed by a Supreme Court order directing that the illegal structures be removed.

Legally operating resorts continued to organise bonfire nights. Though Hampi does not have a bustling nightlife, the resorts on the other side of the river do. Many resorts advertise riverside dining, stargazing, and night walks for tourists.

“However, going to remote areas late at night for stargazing is not common,” says Vijaykumar, a resident of Sanapura. “This is not because of the fear of criminals; this area has not seen a crime like this in at least the past 25 years. It is because people fear encountering wild animals, especially leopards and bears.” He adds that the bund road is mostly deserted.

A visibly shaken Karthika says, “It was not that deserted as some people claim. There was a car and a bike parked on the side of the road when we went there. Why shouldn’t I take my guests there to enjoy nature at night?”

Sherwin Rebello, a travel blogger, writes in a post titled ‘How safe is Hampi for female solo backpackers in 2024?’: “It’s important to remember that Hampi is an extremely safe place to go backpacking… Violent crime is rare, and most travellers report feeling safe during their visit.”

A matter of restoring trust

Every year, Indian and foreign tourists come together to celebrate Holi in Hampi, against the backdrop of the ruins and the rocky landscape.

However, this year, the mood is sombre. Rajkumar, the owner of a resort, says, “I have a resort with 10 rooms. All of them were full during Holi last year, but they are vacant this year. We see only a few tourists visiting us for lunch.”

Foreign tourists cycle near the Tungabhadra Left Bank Canal.
| Photo Credit:
Sridhar Kavali

Ramu, a shopkeeper in Sanapura, says, “If Hampi receives a substantial number of tourists, we can get some income and lead a decent life. The incident has shaken us all and also affected our business.” While his turnover was around ₹8,000 a day during the previous Holi seasons, it has fallen to about ₹3,000 a day this year, he says.

However, Nihil Das, Superintending Archaeologist of the Hampi Circle, says he cannot confirm the drastic reduction in footfall at Hampi after the incident. “One way to estimate the number of tourists visiting ASI-protected sites is to check the number of entry tickets sold. Most foreign tourists book their tickets for the monuments online. We don’t know whether or not they have visited the monuments after the incident,” Das says.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said after the incident that his government would take measures to prevent such incidents from recurring. Culture Minister and Koppal district in-charge, Shivaraj Tangadagi, advised people not to go to remote areas without proper precautions.

Soon after, the State Home Department issued guidelines to be followed by homestay and resort owners for the safety of tourists. It has made it mandatory for them to get permission from the police or the Forest Department before taking tourists to deserted spots or forest areas. If they fail to do this, they will be held “responsible for any mishap that occurs…and subjected to legal action…,” say the guidelines. The document has been circulated to all the districts of Karnataka.

Homestay owners are unhappy about this. “We already follow the regulations and submit C-Forms (to register the arrival of foreign tourists) to the police. But we can’t take responsibility when tourists go in local vehicles or on their own. These guidelines might be misused even by officials in case something goes wrong,” says N.R. Thejaswi, a homestay owner and president of the Chikkamagaluru Homestay Association.

Foreign tourists in Hampi are shocked by the incident, but some have nevertheless made the trip to the tourist site. Chloe, a tourist from France who is in Hampi with her friend, says, “Such incidents happen rarely and can occur anywhere in the world, including France.”

Amit, a tourist from Israel, says, “I learnt about the incident two days ago when I was in Gokarna (a coastal town in Karnataka). I thought the local police would have tightened security, so I decided to come here.”

Bibhas’ cousin, Phiroz Kumar Pradhan, cannot understand how anyone can blame the tourists. “What more precautions could Bibhas have taken? Law and order should not be at the hands of hooligans. While the culprits must be held accountable, it is the government’s responsibility to restore tourists’ trust,” he says.

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*Names have been changed to protect identity. The story includes inputs from Satyasundar Barik from Odisha