BENGALURU: Almost a year after a complaint of rape was filed against Raghaveshwara Bharathi Swami of Sri Ramachandrapura Mutt, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Friday said it will file the chargesheet before the magistrate court in Bengaluru on Saturday.
He was recently arrested, only to be released as he had already been granted anticipatory bail.
CID DGP Kishore Chandra said the 680-page chargesheet is based on the complaint filed on August 28, 2014, by the daughter of the victim, who is a Rama Katha singer. The complainant had alleged that her mother was repeatedly raped by the seer.
According to the chargesheet, the forensic science laboratory found traces of the swami’s semen on the victim’s undergarments. The swami’s blood and sweat samples were also collected for tests at Victoria Hospital. They also found hair samples of the accused on the clothes given by the victim for the tests. The CID sleuths also recovered call records, deleted emails and texts exchanged between the accused and victim. “The voice conversations are authentic. A visitor’s diary that was maintained by one of the employees of mutt has been recovered, and it details the number of times the victim visited the seer’s personal room. The chargesheet contains the statements of 53 people who witnessed the meetings between the seer and victim,” a CID source said. The rape charges against the seer stand proved, CID sources said.
The chargesheet also contains details about the suicide of Shyamprasad Shastri, the victim’s brother-in-law.
Within a few days after the complaint was filed, Shastri shot himself at his residence in Puttur taluk.
Delay in Action
Lalita Kumaramangalam, chairperson, National Commission for Women, who had visited the city twice in connection with this case, expressed her disappointment against the state government and police department for the delay in filing the chargesheet.
Explaining, the DGP said, “I took charge only two months ago. I don’t want to comment about the past.”
Recently, a 25-year-old woman Yakshagana artiste and a student of the mutt levelled sexual assault allegations against the seer.
It was only after the second incident that the demand for a chargesheet gained momentum.
A Conspiracy, They Charge
Meanwhile, representatives of the mutt held a press meet on Friday and denied the charges of rape levelled against the seer. They said it was a conspiracy to malign a historically-reputed institution.