The victim alleged that the pontiff sexually assaulted her on several occasions in the past five years even when she was a minor.
Balamanjunath Mahaswamiji of Vidya Chowdeshwari Peeth
Balamanjunath Mahaswamiji of Vidya Chowdeshwari Peeth in Kunigal Taluk of the Tumakru district in Karnataka has been arrested on charges of rape under POCSO Act following a complaint lodged by a 20-year-old woman with the police.
The victim alleged that the pontiff sexually assaulted her on several occasions in the past five years even when she was a minor.
According to the complaint, she first visited the Mutt along with her father when she was 15. They were looking for cure for their health issues and they performed an “Ashtamangala prasnam”. But taking advantage, he allegedly sexually assaulted her.
Later, he also forced her to attend his video calls wherein he asked her to remove her clothes and “please” him, the complaint alleged.
“Based on a complaint we received from the victim, we registered a case under sections 376 (rape), 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and other relevant section of the Protection of Children from the Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act as well as IT Act,” a senior officer said, adding, the pontiff was arrested on Thursday night.
Earlier, Shivamurthy Sharanaru, an accused in rape and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act cases, retook the reins of the Murugha Matha — in the Chitradurga district of Karnataka — as its head pontiff. Sharanaru is currently out on bail.
Sharanaru was granted conditional bail by the Karnataka High Court in the first FIR filed against him on 8 November last year, 14 months after his arrest. He was released from the Chitradurga district prison on 16 November.
Four days later, the Chitradurga police arrested him again based on a non-bailable warrant issued against him by the Second Additional Sessions Court in the city.
The warrant was linked to the second POCSO case that was still pending. However, on the same day, a single-judge bench of the high court stayed the non-bailable warrant and ordered the seer’s immediate release.
The first complaint against the pontiff and four others was filed by the Odanadi Seva Samsthe, a Mysuru-based NGO. It accused them of sexually harassing minor girls studying at the Matha-run school and staying in its hostel on the Murugha Matha premises in Chitradurga.
The Nazarabad police in Mysuru registered the case under POCSO and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Acts. The case was later transferred to the Chitradurga Rural police station.
The second case under POCSO was registered after the mother of two minor girls complained that her daughters and two other minor girls were sexually assaulted by the seer in 2019 and 2022.
The complainant also accused junior pontiff Basavaditya and others, including Paramashivaiah, Gangadhar, Mahalinga, and Karibasappa, as parties involved in the case.
Paramashivaiah’s name was later dropped from the charge sheet filed in the second case.
(With PTI inputs)
May 10, 2024
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