Karnataka: Chitradurga Murugha Math priest Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru booked in POCSO case
The 64-year-old seer, registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act, 2012 and Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), was arrested by the Chitradurga police from his mutt at 10.20 pm. The arrest came after a growing uproar and protest by Dalit organisations. Of the two survivors, one is from the Scheduled Caste community.
Police said Shivamurthy Swamy was taken to the district hospital for medical examination before being arrested. Confirming the arrest of the pontiff, ADGP Alok Kumar said in Bengaluru that the pontiff would be produced before a judge in Chitradurga late at night.
Some of Sivamurthy’s swami associates said that he was not arrested, but surrendered to the police. The Pope had applied for anticipatory bail in a Karnataka court on Monday.
Earlier, the investigating officers had detained the hostel warden of Murugha Math, identified as Rashmi, for questioning in the case. The second accused woman in the case appeared in the court and in the presence of the judge her statements were recorded under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Later the police took him into custody.
Chitradurga Superintendent of Police K Parashuram said that Rashmi is being questioned in the matter.
However, three other accused in the case, junior saint Basavaditya, Math secretary Paramshivaiya and advocate Gangadharaiyya are absconding, a police official said.
On August 26, a case of rape was registered against Sivamurthy Swamy and four others under POCSO Act and IPC section 376 at Nazarabad police station in Mysore. Later the matter was handed over to Chitradurga Police for further investigation.
Police in Chitradurga had earlier this week produced both the victims for recording their statements under section 164 of CrPC. It is alleged that between January 2019 and June 2022, girls aged 15 and 16, studying in a school run by a 17th-century monastery and residing in a hostel run by the monastery, were sexually abused.
The district police invoked the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (the Act) against the pontiff on August 31 as one of the victims is from the Scheduled Caste community.
Mysore-based NGO Odanadi Seva Sansthan, which is engaged in the rescue and rehabilitation of sexually abused women and children, had filed a case under the POCSO Act after the two girls approached the District Child Welfare Committee (CWC) .
The CWC, which is a quasi-judicial body, recorded the statements of both the girls and lodged a complaint. According to the FIR, one victim was tortured for three and a half years, the other for one and a half years.
In his defence, the pontiff had called the case “baseless” and claimed that the allegations against him were part of a long-running conspiracy.
watch Murugha Mutt’s Sadhu Shivamurthy, accused of rape, arrested in sexual harassment case