Politicians make U-Turn on seer after arrest under Pocso charges

Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said the charges levelled against the Lingayat seer were “serious” and urged police to carry out an “impartial investigation” in the matter.

Following Murugha Mutt pontiff Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru’s arrest on charges of child sexual abuse, a section of political leaders, who earlier commented in favour of the seer, now sought a fair probe into the case.

Following Murugha Mutt pontiff Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru’s arrest on charges of child sexual abuse, a section of political leaders, who earlier commented in favour of the seer, now sought a fair probe into the case. (ANI)

Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said the charges levelled against the Lingayat seer were “serious” and urged police to carry out an “impartial investigation” in the matter.

Taking to Twitter, Siddaramaiah called on police to reveal the “truth”. “The allegations against Chitradurga Muruga Mutt Swamiji is serious. Police should carry out an impartial investigation based on a complaint filed by the girls and reveal the truth,” Siddaramaiah tweeted.

Former CM BS Yediyurappa said he does not wish to speak more on the issue. “Everyone knows about the seer. Such an incident should not have taken place, but it has happened, let’s see,” Yediyurappa said.

The former chief minister earlier backed the seer, claiming the charges against the seer were false. “It is a false charge. There is no truth in it and after the completion of the investigation, he will come out clean,” said he said on August 28.

Home minister Araga Jnanendra said probe into a POCSO case involving arrested Lingayat pontiff, will be conducted according to the law of the land. “There will be no government interference in any way. Police are free to conduct investigations,” he said.

On August 28, the minister, who heads the police department, told the media that he has information that the FIR was a result of an internal problem at the mutt. “This is an internal matter. One of his employees (who was disgruntled) has done it is the information I have,” the minister had said even before police recorded the seer’s statement.

The NGO, where the students were counselled initially, said police should take strict action. The girls are said to have approached Odanadi Seva Samsthe, a non-governmental organisation based in Mysuru, and shared during counselling the horrors of the alleged abuse they endured, following which the NGO registered a case with police.

Parashu, co-founder of NGO, expressed his disappointment over the “attitude” of authorities.

A counsellor at the NGO, who spoke to the victims, said the girls were apprehensive to talk initially. “In the first counselling session, they didn’t speak openly. We only took the basic information on the first day. They spoke about how they were studying in mutt’s school etc. It was only in the third counselling session, they shared the details about the sexual harassment,” she said.

She said in their statement, the girls said there was a system of harassment. “One girl was there for three years and another was there for one year. The first girl said that for three years sexual harassment has been taking place. They said that even though they had informed the hostel warden about the instances, no action was taken. In the complaint, they have said they have explicitly said no to the advances made by the seer. They called him appaji, and they have told him that they were like children while saying no to his advances,” the counsellor said.

BT Venkatesh, a Bengaluru-based senior criminal lawyer, alleged that police had deliberately delayed the arrest. “It is a serious offence. In cases such as this, where sexual abuse of a child is reported, an arrest is warranted. The bare minimum should be questioning the suspect. It took them a week to do so,” said Venkatesh.

The lawyer further said there were two other factors that warranted the arrest of the seer at the earliest. “He was intercepted by police while trying to flee (on Monday). Secondly, he is an influential person, who gets the support of the home minister of state and a former chief minister. He could clearly tamper with evidence and influence witnesses. Police are not delivering justice. Here everyone is equal before the law, but some seem to have additional privileges,” he said.