AMN / WEB DESK
Karnataka Influential Lingayat seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, who heads the Jagadguru Murugharajendra Vidyapeetha in Chitradurga in central Karnataka, was arrested from the mutt Thursday night, a week after an FIR was registered against him for alleged sexual assault of two minor students.
The arrest came after police and the state government faced criticism for alleged inaction in the case. Several Dalit organisations staged protests Thursday, demanding the pontiff’s arrest.
Bharathiya Dalitha Sangarsha Samithi founder H Prakash Beeravara, who led a protest that blocked the car of Chitradurga Deputy Commissioner, said: “Everyone knows that he is sitting inside the mutt. What stops police from arresting him? It is clear that they have succumbed to pressure.”
The case against the Lingayat seer was first registered by a child welfare committee in Mysuru on August 26, on behalf of the minor girls who left the mutt hostel in July. The case was later transferred to Chitradurga where the mutt is located.
The Lingayat seer was in the news on August 29 after reports of his detention. However, a mutt official clarified that was not the case and the seer had gone to Haveri to meet an advocate. The seer addressed a gathering on his return to mutt and said there is no need to fear. On the same day, the seer moved a district court seeking anticipatory bail.
Over the last three days, protests have intensified in Chitradurga calling for strict action and arrest of the seer accused of sexually assaulting minor girls.
On Thursday, police detained the mutt hostel warden, Rashmi, in connection with the rape case and sources claimed that the seer will be questioned soon.