BENGALURU: In a shocking case that is suspected by followers to be a conspiracy against the pontiff of Chitradurga’s Sri Murugha Mutt, Dr Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) has been registered against the seer and four others on Friday at Mysuru’s Nazarbad police station.
Two girl students studying at a school run by the mutt made allegations to Mysuru-based NGO, Odanadi, about the pontiff sexually abusing them. The NGO brought it to the notice of the district children's welfare committee.
The committee, after an inquiry, directed the Legal Commission Probation Officer/District Child Protect Unit to lodge a complaint with the police under POCSO Act against the seer and four others. Apart from the seer, the FIR registered under the POCSO Act also names Rashmi, the warden of Akkamahadevi hostel located at Murugha Mutt in Chitradurga, junior pontiff Basavadithya, Paramashivaiah and Gangadharaiah.
Mysuru’s Nazarbad police have registered a case and transferred it to the police in Chitradurga, where the alleged incident took place. In the First Information Report (FIR), the Child Protection Unit Probation officer, C Chandrakumar, said the class 10 girls, aged 15 and 16, were studying at a school and staying at the hostel under the aegis of Murugha Mutt, and alleged that the seer was sexually abusing the two students for more than three years.
Araga says police will conduct a fair probe
The complainant accused the warden and three others of abetment to the alleged crime based on the girls’ statements during counselling. The students in their statements alleged that they were sexually abused when the warden sent them to give fruits to the seer. There were also allegations of hostel inmates falling unconscious on consuming fruits given to them and subsequently sexually abused on the mutt premises.
Mysuru DCP (Law & Order) Pradeep Gunti said Chitradurga police will be investigating the case. Home Minister Araga Jnanendra has assured a fair probe into the case. Meanwhile, the hostel warden Rashmi, accused in the case registered in Mysuru, has filed a complaint with Chitradurga police late Friday night, alleging sexual harassment, wrongful confinement and kidnap of the two girls by the former administrator of the mutt SK Basavarajan and his wife, ex-president of Chitradurga ZP Soubhagya Basavarajan.
Incidentally, Basavarajan was sacked as the Mutt administrator on Friday. In her complaint, Rashmi alleged that the two minor girl students who stayed at the hostel obtained a gate pass on July 24, 2022, and went out. The same day these two girls were traced by Cottonpet police in Bengaluru and the incident was reported to the Mutt and Basavarajan, who was then the administrator of the mutt.
Both Basavarajan and his wife Soubhagya took custody of the two girls on July 25 at 5 AM from the Cottonpet police station and are alleged to have been wrongfully confined till July 27, according to Rashmi’s complaint. Basavarajan and his wife allegedly neither informed the girls’ parents nor the hostel warden about the girls’ whereabouts.
Rashmi further alleged that Basavarajan used to behave obscenely with the girls on the pretext of inspecting the hostels under the Mutt.“Whenever I tried to oppose him, Basavarajan used to threaten me with murder and told me to stay silent,” she added in the complaint.
The Chitradurga Rural police who received a complaint, have registered a case under Indian Penal Code sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 363 (kidnapping), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 354 (A) (Sexual Harassment), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) against Basavarajan and Soubhagya. Chitradurga Rural police are investigating this case.