Pocso case against Murugha Mutt head: Court to hear anticipatory bail plea of seer on Thursday, NGO to oppose

A local court in Chitradurga, Karnataka, will on Thursday hear an anticipatory bail application filed by the head of the Murugha Mutt, Shivamurthy Muruga Sharanaru, in a case of alleged sexual assault on two minor girls.

The Police have registered a case against the seer and four others under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso), 2012, and have taken up the investigation.

Odanadi Seva Samsthe, the Mysuru-based nonprofit, which helped the minor students file the police complaint, has decided to throw its weight behind the case, and file a separate application before the Chitradurga court opposing the anticipatory bail, its co-founder Stanly told ET. The Pocso law provided for others too to join the case and fight for the rights of victims along with the prosecution, he said.

The women & child development authorities on Wednesday shifted about 50 students from the mutt hostels to a government-run facility.

The local police on Wednesday conducted a spot mahajar at the Murugha mutt premises on a complaint filed by the hostel warden against former mutt administrator SK Basavarajan and his wife Sowbhagya accusing them of sexual harassment, wrongful confinement, and abduction of two minor girls.

The followers of Murugha Sharanaru suspect the couple to be behind what they allege to be a "conspiracy to malign the mutt and its head."

Sections of Dalit organisations have called for a state-wide protest on September 2 demanding a fair probe into the allegations of sexual assault as one of the two girls is said to belong to an SC community. The police have also registered a case on the seer under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The two girls who alleged they had been sexually abused by the seer, recorded their statement before a judicial magistrate in Chitradurga on Tuesday. The statements were video recorded under Section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

The seer heads the powerful Veerashaiva-Lingayat mutt, the chief reason for political parties to tread cautiously and avoid making media statements as the community represents the largest vote bloc, making about 18% of population. The State BJP is said to have asked its media panelists to take a neutral stand on questions related to the case.

Karnataka is set to face the assembly polls in about nine months, and before that crucial polls to Bengaluru’s civic body BBMP and to taluk and zilla panchayat bodies are also due.