A Bengaluru court has ordered the removal of 8,842 online links containing allegedly defamatory content related to the claims of mass graves, disappearances, and crimes against women and students over the past two decades in Dharmasthala, a temple town in Karnataka, The Times of India reported on Tuesday.

The order, passed on July 18 by the Additional City Civil and Sessions Court, came on a petition filed by Harshendra Kumar D, secretary of the Shri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara Education Society and brother of Bharatiya Janata Party MP D Veerendra Heggade.

The Heggade family manages the Dharmasthala temple and institutions associated with it.

Earlier this month, a first information report was registered in Dharmasthala based on a complaint by a sanitary worker, who alleged that he was forced to bury the bodies of several women bearing signs of sexual assault.

On July 19, the Karnataka government announced the formation of a Special Investigation Team to probe the case.

The court on July 18 granted an ex-parte injunction – an order passed without hearing the other side – directing that the links be “deleted or de-indexed” immediately. It also barred media organisations from publishing or sharing any content related to the petitioner.

Among the links to be deleted are coverage of the allegations by newspapers, TV channels, digital portals, YouTube creators and social media users, according to Newslaundry.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for August 5.

In his petition, Kumar had alleged that the links in question included “false, baseless, reckless and defamatory” claims against him, his brother, their family and the institutions they manage, The Indian Express reported.

He added that “though there is no allegation” against him or his family members in the FIR or the investigation, “vested interested persons are continuing to make false, frivolous, baseless and vexatious video contents”, according to The Indian Express.

Kumar’s petition reportedly named 338 respondents, including YouTube, Meta, Reddit and several social activists from Karnataka and Kerala.

The plea sought directions to curb the “abuse of freedom of speech”.