BENGALURU: The Ramanagara police arrested three persons, including a seer and an engineering student, in connection with the suicide of Basavalinga Swamiji, the seer of Kanchugal Bande Mutt in Magadi.
The police said investigations revealed that the accused honey-rapped the victim and blackmailed him, pushing him to take the extreme step.
Mrithyunjaya Swamy of Kannuru mutt in Magadi, Neelambike alias Chandu (21), a second-year engineering student in Doddaballapur, and Mahadevaiah, an advocate who was earlier working in a mutt, is arrested.
Basavalinga Swamiji, the 45-year-old seer, hanged himself in his room on October 24. This was the second death of a seer by suicide after the arrest of the Muruga Mutt seer in a Pocso case.
The Ramanagara police had questioned over 25 people based on a suicide note left by the deceased, besides analysing his mobile phone call records.
However, the line of investigation was about the honey trap from the beginning, as the seer had hinted about it in the death note and several videos were also seized during the course of the probe.
The police said the trio was arrested after gathering crucial evidence against them.
“The investigation established that Mrithyunjaya Swamy and Basavalinga Swamiji had differences over several issues and it had turned into animosity. Mrithyunjaya Swamy had contacted Neelambike through Mahadevaiah and had asked her to make video calls to Basavalinga Swamiji. Accordingly, she recorded the video calls and shared them with Mahadevaiah. Using them, Mrithyunjaya Swamy was blackmailing the Bande mutt seer,” the police said.
The accused were said to be pressurising Basavalinga Swamiji to step down or else they would leak the videos. “Though it went on for months, Swamiji did not heed their demand. But he was apparently shaken after the arrest of Muruga Mutt seer and using the same case, the accused pressurised him further, which drove him to suicide,” sources said.
The police also suspect that the Bande Mutt seer had paid huge money to the accused, including the girl, and that angle is being investigated. The police have taken the accused into police custody and are questioning them.