Mutt’s ex-pontiff drugged and raped girls, say police
MYSURU: Lingayat seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the former pontiff of a prominent mutt in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district and accused of sexually assaulting at least four girls, would rape minors after giving them apples laced with sedatives, senior police officers said on Tuesday.
Sharanaru (64), the former pontiff of Jagadguru Murugarajendra Vidyapeetha Mutt in Chitradurga, was arrested on September 1 following a case registered against him under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act on August 27 for allegedly sexually harassing two minor girls studying in a high school run by the mutt.
The case was registered on the basis of a complaint filed by the two minors. On October 19, police registered another case under the Pocso Act against the seer on the complaints of two more girls.
On October 27, the investigation team submitted a 694-page charge sheet before the district’s second additional and sessions court in the first case registered on August 27 and named the seer and two more accused in it. Investigations are underway in the other case against the seer, police officers said.
“The Akka Mahadevi hostel (run by the mutt) warden, Rashmi, was sending minor children to the seer’s room after 8pm, where he touched the minors inappropriately,” said Chitradurga superintendent of police K Parashuram, who supervised the investigation, while giving details about the charge sheet. “Whenever the children resisted, Sharanaru gave them apples laced with sedatives and allegedly raped them .... He threatened them not to disclose this (the incident) to anyone and even posed life threats.”
HT has not seen a copy of the charge sheet.
Projecting himself as an incarnation of God, the seer used to threaten to curse the children if they refused to serve him, the SP said. “He told them that his curse will destroy them and their families.”
The officer further said that the accused seer often targeted orphan children and those whose families were being helped financially by the mutt, which is among the most influential religious centres for the influential Lingayat community, believed to be the single largest caste group (around 17%) in Karnataka.
“The guardians/parents of the victims were told to serve Sharanaru
well and they were unaware of the heinous act,” the SP said.
Though the charge sheet was submitted in the court on October 27, police refused to divulge any details from it at the time.
Another senior police officer, asking not to be named, said the “seer may have sexually exploited at least 10-15 girls, according to statements of the victims”.
Sharanaru, who is presently in judicial custody, has denied the allegations against him.
Reacting to the findings of the investigating team so far, former Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa, a prominent Lingayat leader who earlier defended the seer, on Tuesday said the seer has committed an “unpardonable” crime.
“I didn’t expect the seer to stoop so low. He deserves strict punishment,” Yediyurappa said.
Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai, who also belongs to the Lingayat community, said the seer “would be punished as per law”.