The chief pontiff of an influential Lingayat mutt in Karnataka’s Chitradurga has been accused of sexually assaulting girl students who reside at the institution. A police complaint was filed on behalf of two survivors, who are 15 and 16 years old, based on which a First Information Report (FIR) has been filed against Dr Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the chief pontiff of the Jagadguru Murugarajendra Vidyapeetha Mutt. He has been booked under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The students, who stayed at the mutt’s residential facility, told the police that Shivamurthy allegedly sexually assaulted one of them over the past 3.5 years, and the other for the past 1.5 years. According to the complaint, the seer would allegedly call the girls to his chambers on some pretext and sexually assault them. The girls had approached the Child Welfare Committee in Mysuru and narrated the ordeal in detail, based on which officials approached the Nazarbad police station in Mysuru and filed a complaint on their behalf. The police have registered a First Information Report (FIR) and have begun investigation.
Apart from Shivamurthy, the FIR names as accused Rashmi, a warden of the mutt’s residential wing; Basavaditya, a junior priest at the mutt, lawyer Gangadharayya, and leader Paramashivayya. The girls reached Mysuru and approached the NGO Odanadi Seva Samsthe, which works for the rescue and empowerment of human trafficking victims, among other causes. The FIR states that, after a counseling session, the NGO approached the Child Welfare Committee, after which the police complaint was filed. According to reports, the survivors approached the CWC in Mysuru, as Shivamurthy is an influential figure in and around Chitradurga and they feared the repercussions.
The Jagadguru Murugarajendra Vidyapeetha Mutt is a prominent Lingayat seminary, and with political parties hoping to woo the Lingayat community ahead of the Assembly elections next year, it has been visited in the recent past by leaders including Rahul Gandhi, who received the ‘Ishtalinga Deekshe’ from Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru.