Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the chief pontiff at the Muruga Math, was arrested by the Karnataka Police on Thursday night in a sexual assault case. The arrest came hours after a local court in Chitradurga adjourned the hearing on the seer's anticipatory bail plea to Friday.
The seer has been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) for alleged sexual abuse of two high school girls. He has also been charged under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as one of the two victims was from the SC community.
"The chief pontiff of Sri Murugha Mutt, Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, accused of sexually assaulting minors, arrested," said Alok Kumar, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Law and Order, Karnataka.
Apart from the seer, a total of five people, including the warden of the monastery's hostel, are accused in the case.
It is alleged that the two girls, aged 15 and 16, studying in a school run by the math and residing in a hostel, also run by the monastery, were sexually abused between January 2019 and June 2022.
The first additional district and sessions judge's court in Chitradurga, meanwhile, granted bail to S.K. Basavarajan, the seminary's administrative officer. Basavarajan, a former MLA, claimed that he was not involved in any conspiracy against the pontiff and he has done his duty by trying to protect the children.
"I have no role in this case, there is no conspiracy on my part, I'm being intentionally accused. As the case is before the Court, I don't want to comment more,” he said.
The police in Chitradurga had earlier this week produced the two victims for recording their statements under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code(Cr.PC).
Murugha math is an influential Lingayat mutt and all political parties in the poll-bound state tread carefully on the charges against the seer.
Meanwhile, a group of advocates has written to the Registrar General of the Karnataka High Court claiming that the investigation against the accused seer "is not being carried out in an unbiased, free and fair manner." They called for immediate intervention of the high court in monitoring the ongoing inquiry of the case in the interest of justice, so as to ensure fair and free investigations.
With PTI inputs
