BENGALURU: The High Court of Karnataka on Wednesday granted bail to Dr Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru of Sri Jagadguru Murugharajendra Bruhanmath of Chitradurga in one of the two cases registered against him for allegedly sexually abusing two minor girls. The court, however, imposed conditions that the seer should not enter the Chitradurga district till the conclusion of the trial pending in two cases. He should appear before the special court during trial through video-conferencing without fail.
Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar passed this order on the petitions filed by the seer in connection with a complaint registered against him under the POCSO Act and other Acts in August 2022. “It is no doubt true that Sharanaru is the chief of a mutt which has a large number of devotees and followers. His position itself cannot be a reason for drawing an inference that he will try to meddle with the evidence. The mere allegation to this effect cannot be considered if a case for bail is otherwise made out. Bail is not an absolute liberty; conditions are always imposed while granting bail. If he misuses the liberty and violates the conditions, the same may be considered for cancellation of bail,” the court observed.
Assessing the materials collected by the investigator, the court noted that the victims did not state that they were subjected to aggravated sexual assault before the magistrate. However, their statements indicated a kind of sexual assault, contrary to the statement given to the investigator and the doctor. The court said that the victims stated that eight more girls of the hostel were also sexually abused like them. But none of those girls complained of sexual abuse. In contrast, they stated that the seer used to treat them well and teach English and Sanskrit once a week.
Pointing out the contradictions in the statements of the victims and the prosecution, the court noted that the conduct of the victims in going to Bengaluru on July 24, 2022, leaving the hostel at 4 pm assumes importance... The complaint could have been given to Chitradurga police. Instead, they went to Mysuru. All these events look mysterious, said the court, adding that the trial court shall decide the case on merits without being influenced by any of the observations made in this order.
FIR against mutt ex-admin Basavarajan, wife quashed
Observing that the proceedings initiated at the behest of Sri Basavaprabhu Swamiji is a deliberate attempt calculated to derail the trial against the pontiff of the Jagadguru Murugharajendra Bruhanmath, the HC said it is its bounden duty to insulate criminal cases (registered against the pontiff) from outside interferences. Justice R Devdas made these observations while quashing the FIR against SK Basavarajan, former administrator of the mutt, his wife Sowbhagya Basavarajan, and others, based on a complaint by Basavaprabhu Swamiji, the in-charge pontiff of the mutt, in July 2022, stating that some persons conspired to tarnish the image of the mutt and pontiff by coaxing the two young girls to make unfounded statements. The court further observed that it was necessary to notice the dubious conduct of the Chitradurga police in putting a wrong label of the offences, only to facilitate registration of a cognisable offence, although a plain reading of the written complaint given by Basavaprabhu Swamiji does not make out any offence in Sections 384 or 366A of the IPC.