The second suspect in the case of young girls’ sexual assault involving Lingayat seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru has now been taken into custody by the Karnataka Police.
While addressing the media, the Superintendent of Police of Chitradurga Akkamhadevi Rashmi, has been detained.
On Thursday, Shivamurthy Murug Sharanaru was taken into custody on charges of sexually assaulting young girls. The court then ordered him to spend the next 14 days in judicial custody. According to the media reports, a POCSO Act FIR was filed against the famous Chitradurga Muruga Math priest after the young girl allegedly reported being sexually assaulted.
On August 27, a complaint was made under the POCSO Act and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against the priest of Chitradurga’s Jagadguru Murugarajendra Vidyapeetha Mutt.
With the aid of a lady warden, a junior pontiff, and other personnel, he is accused of raping females between the ages of 15 and 16.
Three other suspects in the case, junior pontiff Basavaditya, the Mutt’s secretary Paramashivaiah, and advocate Gangadharaiah, have fled.
On Monday, Sharanaru was ordered to return to his home district after being forbidden from entering Maharashtra due to fears that he was attempting to abscond. Later, in a speech to his followers, he related the sexual assault case to an alleged plot against the mutt, one of the main political group for the Lingayat community, which is thought to be the largest group in Karnataka.
