POCSO case against Karnataka mutt chief: 3 more booked, notices to complainants

The notices were issued when the court took up the anticipatory bail pleas of two of three persons booked on the charge of abetment. It fixed September 7 as the next date of hearing.

Shivamurthy Muruga Sharanaru, the head pontiff of the Murugarajendra Mutt. (File)

A POCSO court issued notices Saturday to two girls who have alleged sexual assault by influential Lingayat mutt pontiff Shivamurthy Muruga Sharanaru of the Jagadguru Murugharajendra Vidyapeetha in Chitradurga in Karnataka.

The notices were issued when the court took up the anticipatory bail pleas of two of three persons booked on the charge of abetment. It fixed September 7 as the next date of hearing.

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The pontiff and a hostel warden have already been arrested. Shivamurthy was sent to three-day police custody on Friday.

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Earlier, the two girls were produced in the court on September 1.

On August 30, the girls recorded their statements before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC. The pontiff was arrested on September 1.

An FIR was lodged against the pontiff by the Mysuru police on August 26 under the POCSO Act and Section 376 (rape) of the IPC after the victims told members of the Child Welfare Committee that the pontiff had sexually assaulted them between January 2019 and June 2022. The case was later transferred to the Chitradurga Rural police.

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