The former legislator was arrested along with a fired schoolteacher on 10 November based on a complaint by Basavaprabhu Swamy.
SK Basavarajan has been in judicial custody since his arrest under charges of criminal conspiracy against the matha's head pontiff Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru. (Creative Commons)
The Karnataka High Court on Thursday, 23 December, granted conditional bail to former MLA and Murugha Matha ex-administrator SK Basavarajan.
He has been in judicial custody since his arrest under charges of criminal conspiracy against the matha’s head pontiff Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru.
The head seer — Sharanaru — himself is in judicial custody since 1 September on charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and sexual assault against two minor girls in one case and four other minor girls in another case.
Both cases were initially registered at the Nazarbad Police Station in Mysuru, but were later transferred to the Chitradurga Rural Police Station.
Basavarajan’s bail petition was heard by the vacation bench of Justice S Rachaiah on Thursday.
Senior advocate Hasmath Pasha, arguing for Basavarajan, submitted that the allegations against him were politically motivated.
He argued that the allegation against Basavarajan was a counter-complaint following the arrest of Shivamurthy Sharanaru under provisions of the POCSO Act.
Basavarajan was in illegal custody as the alleged offences against him have not even taken place, the court was informed.
The former legislator has been accused of criminal conspiracy, extortion, cheating, and procuration of minor girls.
After Sharanaru’s arrest, Basavaprabhu, the in-charge of the matha, filed a false complaint, Basavarajan’s counsel told the court.
Ex-MLA and former administrator of Murugha matha Basavarajan (60) was arrested on 10 November along with Basavarajendran, a dismissed school teacher from the matha’s school, after the interim chief Basavaprabhu Swamy filed a complaint against three people — the ex-MLA, the dismissed school teacher, and a 38-year-old woman, who was the mother of two of the alleged victim girls in the second POCSO case against the seer.
The Chitradurga Rural Police arrested the two men. However, they detained the mother and questioned her for over a week.
The interim chief of Murugha matha, Basavaprabhu Swamy, filed a police complaint against the trio based on an audio clip in which the dismissed teacher is heard talking to one of the victims, apparently coaxing her to come forward with a complaint against the head seer.
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