Karnataka mutt’s ex-pontiff drugged and raped girls: Police
Lingayat seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the former pontiff of a prominent mutt in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district and accused of sexually assaulting at least four girls, would rape minors after giving them apples laced with sedatives, senior police officers said on Tuesday.
Sharanaru (64), the former pontiff of Jagadguru Murugarajendra Vidyapeetha Mutt in Chitradurga, was arrested on September 1 following a case registered against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act on August 27 for allegedly sexually harassing two minor girls studying in a high school run by the mutt. The case was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by the two minors. On October 19, police registered another case under the Pocso Act against the seer on the complaints of two more girls.
On October 27, the investigation team submitted a 694-page charge sheet before the district’s second additional and sessions court in the first case registered on August 27 and named the seer and two more accused in it. Investigations are underway in the other case against the seer, police officers said.
“The Akka Mahadevi hostel (run by the mutt) warden, Rashmi, was sending minor children to the seer’s room after 8pm, where he touched the minors inappropriately,” said Chitradurga superintendent of police K Parashuram, who supervised the investigation, while giving details about the charge sheet. “Whenever the children resisted, Sharanaru gave them apples laced with sedatives and allegedly raped them.”
“He threatened them not to disclose this (the incident) to anyone and even posed life threats.”
HT has not seen a copy of the charge sheet.
Projecting himself as an incarnation of God, the seer used to threaten to curse the children if they refused to serve him, the SP said. “He told them that his curse will destroy them and their families.”
The officer further said that the accused seer often targeted orphan children and those whose families were being helped financially by the mutt, which is among the most influential religious centres for the influential Lingayat community, believed to be the single largest caste group (around 17%) in Karnataka. “The guardians/parents of the victims were told to serve Sharanaru well and they were unaware of the heinous act,” the SP said.
Though the charge sheet was submitted in the court on October 27, police had then refused to divulge any details from it.
Another senior police officer, asking not to be named, said the “seer may have sexually exploited at least 10-15 girls, according to statements of the victims”. The charge sheet, filed in the first sexual assault case against the seer, carries the victims’ accounts and other findings of the investigation team, said the officer, who is part of the probe team. “But there is no scientific evidence yet to support the charges,” the officer added.
Besides Sharanaru, the other people who are being investigated in the case are hostel warden Rashmi, younger pontiff Basavaraditya Swami, mutt hostel head Parama Shivaiah and mutt legal adviser Gangadhraiah. The FIR in the case accused the seer of sexually assaulting the minor girls while others supported him.
“So far, we have not found any evidence against the third accused, Basavaraditya Swami, and the fifth accused, advocate Gangadharaiah. Hence, the charge sheet does not include their names,” said Parashuram. “The investigation team is still probing the role of the two. If we find any evidence against them, a supplementary charge sheet will be filed against them.”
Sharanaru, who is presently in judicial custody, denied the allegations during his three-day interrogation by the police. “The seer was interrogated for more than 12 hours over the three days. The SP and circle inspector Balachandra Naik asked many questions, but he denied the allegations of sexual assault on minor girls,” a senior police officer previously said. “He alleged the allegations were part of a larger conspiracy against him.”
Demanding a thorough probe into the case, VK Stanley, director of Mysuru-based NGO Odanadi, which helped the first two minor survivors file the complaint against the seer, said: “The charge sheet clearly indicted Shivamurthy Sharanaru with committing atrocities on poor girls under the guise of pontiff. A thorough probe should be conducted into the heinous acts.”
Reacting to the findings by the investigating team so far, former Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa, a prominent Lingayat leader who earlier defended the seer, on Tuesday said the seer has committed an “unpardonable” crime.
“I didn’t expect the seer to stoop so low. He deserves strict punishment,” Yediyurappa, who is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s central parliamentary committee, told reporters in Udupi district.
A day after the seer was booked under Pocso, the senior BJP leader said that charges against the seer were false. “There is no truth in it and after the completion of the investigation, he will come out clean,” Yediyurappa said on August 28.
Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, who also belongs to the Lingayat community, said the seer “would be punished as per law”.
