Muruga Mutt seer called minor to his room, raped her multiple times, says charge sheet

The 64-year-old seer would summon the teenager after everyone went to bed and rape her and ensured she left before the others woke up, the charge sheet said.

Lingayat seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the former pontiff of a prominent mutt in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district accused of sexually assaulting minor girls, raped a 13-year-old girl multiple times after calling her to his room at night between 2013 and 2015, according to the police’s charge sheet filed in the case.

Sharanaru, who has been accused of sexually assaulting at least two girls studying in a high school run by Jagadguru Murugarajendra Vidyapeetha Mutt, is currently in Chitradurga jail.

The 64-year-old seer would summon the teenager after everyone went to bed and rape her and ensured she left before the others woke up, the charge sheet said.

Sharanaru, who has been accused of sexually assaulting at least two girls studying in a high school run by Jagadguru Murugarajendra Vidyapeetha Mutt, is currently in Chitradurga jail after he was arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act on September 1. He was arrested a week after an FIR was registered on August 27.

On October 27, the investigation team submitted a 694-page charge sheet before the district’s second additional and sessions court in the case and named the seer and two more accused in it.

The survivor detailed how she was summoned by the seer to his room every night and sexually assaulted before being sent back to her hostel at 4.30am or 5am.

“My mother passed away due to an illness in 2012. I was studying in class 7... my father enrolled me to Murugha Mutt’s Priyadarshini High School where I stayed at Akka Mahadevi hostel run....” she said, according to the charge sheet.

The woman said Shruti and Apoorva were the wardens when she joined the hostel. “We did not face any issues then,” she said, adding that trouble began in 2013-2014 when Rashmi took over as the hostel warden.

Rashmi, younger pontiff Basavaraditya Swami, mutt hostel head Parama Shivaiah, and mutt legal adviser Gangadhraiah are among those who have been interrogated in the case. While Rashmi’s and Parama Shivaiah’s name have been included in the charge sheet, the others were dropped, police said.

“Rashmi used to ask me to visit the seer to collect fruits and money after 9pm. I went to see him two to three times with another girl. After a while, the other girl refused. I would go to his room through the back door, after dinner and after everyone had slept,” the woman said.

“He used to give me dry fruits and chocolates. He would ask if anyone saw me going to his room. He would then ask me to remove my clothes. He used to remove his clothes too. He would make me sit on his lap and touch my private parts inappropriately and then have sex with me,” she added.

“The hostel gate would be locked and I would take the keys from Vijayamma, the security guard... I don’t remember the number of times I saw him,” she said. Vijayamma has not been questioned so far.

After a probe began in the case, a team headed by deputy superintendent of police (DSP) H R Anil Kumar identified the woman and convinced her to give her statement, a police officer said.