The Mysuru City Police on Friday, 26 August, registered an FIR naming the pontiff of a prominent Lingayat matha (religious monastery) in Karnataka as an accused.
Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the head of the Murugha Matha in Chitradurga, and four others have been booked under provisions of the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act following complaints by two minor girls. The FIR contains allegations of severe nature, including assault amounting to rape.
The Murugha Matha is a prominent Lingayat religious institution with a huge following in the state.
The FIR, a copy of which is with South First, also named Rashmi, the warden of the Akkamahadevi Vasthi Nilaya, a girls’ hostel attached to a school run by the Matha.
Others named in the FIR are junior seer Basavadithya from Chitradurga, as well as Paramashivaiah and advocate Gangadaraiaha from Mysuru.
What the FIR says
Following a complaint by two minor girls — both Class 10 students in the school run by the religious institution and residing in the hostel attached to it — the Nazarbad police registered a case under the POCSO Act.
The minor girls approached the Mysuru-district Child Welfare Committee (CWC) on Friday and recorded a statement detailing the alleged sexual harassment they had been subjected to by the seer. A formal police complaint was filed by the district’s Child Protection Unit’s Legal and Probation Officer Chandrakumar C at the Nazarbad Police Station following the directions of the CWC.
“Two minor girls studying in class 10 at Priyadarshini school and residing in the Akkamahadevi hostel — both run by the matha — have given a statement before the CWC that Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, chief of the matha, has been sexually harassing the 16-year-old victim for the last three and a half years and the 15-year-old victim for over one and a half years with the help of warden Rashmi and junior pontiff of the matha, Basavadithya. Following the CWC’s directions a complaint has been filed for investigation under relevant sections,” the FIR registered by police reads.
The case has since been transferred to Chitradurga as the matha has been indicated as the place of the crime.
The five accused named in the FIR have been booked under POCSO Act Sections 17 (punishment for abetment), 5(L) (punishment for penetrative sexual assault on child more than once), and 6 (punishment for aggravated penetrative sexual assault), as well as Sections 376(2)(n), 376(3), and 149 of the IPC.
Different complaint by accused
Neither the seer nor the matha issued statements over the allegations levelled against them. In an internal meeting on Saturday, the seer of the institution, Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, reportedly deemed the allegations “baseless” and a “conspiracy”.
However, one of the accused in the POCSO Act case, Rashmi, has filed a different complaint alleging kidnap and sexual assault.
In her complaint to the Chitradurga rural police, the warden accused the administrative officer of the matha of sexually harassing her and kidnapping two minor girls from the hostel.
Sources suggested that the woman, in her complaint, referred to the two minor girls in the POCSO Act case as having been “kidnapped” by the administrative officer of the matha before the POCSO Act complaint was filed against the seer and others.
CM Bommai reacts to allegations
Given the severe nature of allegations against a prominent religious head, Chief Minister Basavarai Bommai on Sunday said investigations would reveal the truth.
“This is a case against a prominent person. Not just the POCSO Act case but another kidnap case has also been filed in Chitradurga. Speaking about it or discussing the matter may be detrimental to the investigation. The police have full autonomy to investigate. Only after the probe will the truth come out,” Bommai told reporters on Sunday morning.
