MYSURU: Another complaint under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act has been filed against Muruga Mutt seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, who is in judicial custody in a case of alleged sexual assault on minor girls.
A 38-year-old woman, an assistant cook at the Mutt in Chitradurga, filed a complaint with the Nazarbad police here on Thursday, alleging that the seer sexually assaulted her two minor daughters and two other children, who were studying at the mutt school and staying at Akkamahadevi Hostel for girls students on the mutt premises. The woman alleged that the seer raped her minor daughters and two other girls between January 2019 and June 2022.
The woman said that after she separated from her husband 10 years ago, she and her daughters were staying with her parents. As she was financially poor, she got her children admitted to SJM Kannada medium school run by the mutt. She also joined the mutt’s Dasoha unit as an assistant cook in 2016. Her daughters were then admitted to the mutt’s hostel.
“In 2019, hostel warden Rashmi took my children to the seer’s private room where he sexually assaulted them. My daughters later told me that they were raped by the seer. This continued till June 2022. As the seer is powerful politically, financially and socially and as my children are still young, and I was working with the mutt, I was afraid to file a complaint against the seer and his associates,” she said.
She alleged that the children, who are 10 to 15 years old and staying at the hostel, told her that they were raped by the seer. The hostel warden used to send the children to the seer’s private room by force. If the children resisted, mutt junior seer Basavaditya, staffers Paramashivaiah and Gangadhar used to threaten them. The seer’s assistant, Mahalinga, and cook Karibasappa also used to take the children to his room and guard the door, she said.
The woman said as the previous complaint was filed in Mysuru, she approached the Odanadi Seva Samsthe, which helped the first two victims file a case against the seer. The woman and the four victims recorded their statements before the Child Welfare Committee and District Child Protection Unit. An FIR has been registered against the seer, hostel warden Rashmi, junior seer Basavadithya and staffers Paramashivaiah, Gangadaraiah, Mahalinga and Karibasappa at the Nazarbad police station under the POCSO Act and IPC Sections 376 (rape) and 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence).
Shivamurthy moves Karnataka HC for bail
Muruga Mutt seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru has moved the Karnataka High Court for bail in a case of alleged sexual assault on minor girls. Justice JM Khazi issued notice to the state government and complainant after hearing the appeal filed by the seer, who was arrested in the case under the POCSO Act, SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and IPC.
The Special Second Additional District and Sessions Court in Chitradurga had rejected the bail of the appellant on September 23, 2022, following which, he approached the HC. The seer’s counsel argued that the investigation so far as the appellant is concerned has almost been completed and as such keeping him in judicial custody will infringe his right to liberty. Therefore, the impugned order passed by the sessions court is liable to be set aside, the counsel said.