A sessions court in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district has issued notices to a legal officer of the Mysuru district Child Protection Unit and the child victims in a case of sexual assault filed against Shivamurthy Muruga Sharanaru, the head pontiff of the Murugarajendra Mutt, in the course of an anticipatory bail plea filed by the pontiff. The second additional district and sessions court in Chitradurga ordered that notices be issued to Child Protection Unit officer Chandrakumar C and two minor girls on Monday after the head pontiff of the Lingayat Murugarajendra Mutt sought anticipatory bail in a case lodged against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012 and Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code for rape. The court has ordered notices to the public prosecutor, “complainant, and also to all the victims as mentioned in the complaint forthwith” in its order on Monday. The head pontiff of the Murugarajendra Mutt filed a plea for anticipatory bail in the Chitradurga sessions court on Monday fearing arrest in the case of rape of two minors, who were students at a school and hostel run by the Mutt, that was lodged through Chandrakumar C. The police case against Shivamurthy and three others (including a woman warden of the hostel of the Mutt where the girls stayed) was registered initially on August 26 after the girls, who left the Mutt hostel in July, recorded a statement with the Child Welfare Committee of being sexually assaulted between January 1, 2019, and June 6, 2022. The police case was registered in Mysuru initially on account of the girls being sheltered at a local NGO working for the protection of girls and women. It was later transferred to the Chitradurga Rural police on account of the alleged crimes occurring at the Mutt in the region. In the complaint, it has been alleged that the girls aged 16 and 15 had been sexually assaulted over a period of three years and 18 months by the head pontiff of the mutt. Shivamurthy moved the Chitradurga sessions court for anticipatory bail even as the local police were preparing to obtain statements from the victims under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). Statements that are given before a magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC can be considered key evidence in a crime. The Chitradurga police are yet to officially question the seer in the case in Chitradurga although the seer was briefly in the care of the police on Monday morning when he travelled to the neighbouring Haveri district and returned to the Mutt in the forenoon. The sessions court has posted the hearing of the anticipatory bail plea to September 1. The complainant and the victims are likely to be represented in court when the anticipatory bail matter is taken up. There are apprehensions of political interference in the case on account of the seer enjoying a lot of political support in Karnataka and the Chitradurga region where the Mutt is located. There have been calls to move the case out of Chitradurga to facilitate a fair investigation. “If there is even an iota of doubt that interests of justice will be served better if this case is transferred outside Karnataka, then that too should be considered,” the BJP Rajya Sabha MP Lahar Singh said on Monday in a statement on the controversy. The warden of the hostel attached to the Mutt where the victims were residents earlier has also filed a police complaint against a former administrator of the Mutt, S K Basavarajan, for allegedly kidnapping the minor girls after they left the hostel in July. “This is not the first time that there has been a conspiracy against the Mutt. It has been there for the last 15 years. These conspiracies stayed within the Mutt earlier but now it has come out. I am not going to run away but will respect the law of the land. I will come out clean from the allegations and let the case reach the logical end,” the seer told his followers on Monday. The former chief minister and BJP leader BS Yediyurappa has claimed that the charges against the seer are false. “It is a false charge, there is no truth in it, after the completion of the investigation he will come out clean,” Yediyurappa said. “A POCSO case is registered and there is a kidnapping case as well. The police have registered two cases and are investigating the matter. In this situation, it would be inappropriate to comment. The police have full independence to investigate and the truth will come out,” Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said two days ago.
