Shivamurthy was first arrested in 2022 after two Class 10 students residing in a hostel run by the mutt, accused him of sexual assault.
Published Nov 26, 2025 | 6:47 PM ⚊ Updated Nov 26, 2025 | 6:47 PM
Chitradurga Math seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru. (South First)
Synopsis: A Chitradurga court on 26 November acquitted the influential Murugha Mutt seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharana and three co-accused in the first of two POCSO cases. A second POCSO case and another related matter against the seer remain pending before the courts.
A local court in Karnataka’s Chitradurga on Wednesday, 26 November, acquitted Shivamurthy Murugha Sharana, the seer of the Murugha Mutt, in the first of two sexual assault cases filed against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The mutt is regarded as one of the three most influential institutions of the Lingayat community in Karnataka.
The Second Additional District and Sessions Court also acquitted Rashmi, the warden of the mutt-run hostel, junior pontiff Basavadithya, and mutt secretary Paramashivaiah, all of whom were co-accused in the case.
Shivamurthy was first arrested and jailed in 2022 after two minor girls, both Class 10 students residing in a hostel run by the mutt, accused him of sexual assault.
The first FIR under the POCSO Act against Shivamurthy was registered on 26 August 2022 following allegations made by the two minor girls. It named four others and included allegations of assault amounting to rape.
The case had triggered statewide attention and uproar.
Senior advocate CV Nagesh and lawyer KBK Swamy, who represented the seer, argued that the case was replete with “malice and conspiracy” and that its sole purpose was to damage the reputation of the influential Lingayat seer, Bar and Bench reported.
When the allegations first came to light, leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party, then the ruling party in the state, including former Chief Minister and Lingayat strongman BS Yediyurappa, had backed the seer. They had labelled the allegations against him as “fake.”
The seer was arrested on 1 September 2022 and had been lodged in the Chitradurga district prison until he was granted bail in November 2023.
The court, however, imposed a condition with the bail that Shivamurthy would not be allowed to enter Chitradurga district until the investigation in the cases was completed.
A second POCSO case was registered on 13 October 2022 based on a complaint by a single mother employed as a cook at the matha. She alleged that Shivamurthy had sexually abused four girls, including her two daughters who were residing in the matha-run hostel.
He was arrested in November 2023 in connection with the fresh allegations, but was released within a few hours after the Karnataka High Court quashed a non-bailable warrant issued against him by the Sessions Court in Chitradurga.
A third case was filed against him, accusing him of concealing information about minors living on the mutt premises. As of now, hearings have been completed only for the first case, and the trial is yet to begin in the second.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
