An influential Karnataka seer, who is accused of raping two minor girls, will have to stay in jail and can only be shifted to the hospital if his health worsens, a local court said on Friday, pulling up the police for shifting the head of the monastery out of prison for medical reasons within hours of his arrest.
Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, who heads the influential Jagadguru Murugarajendra Vidyapeetha Mutt, was arrested late on Thursday after days of intense public pressure. He is accused of raping two girls, 15 and 16, between 2019 and 2022, and was booked by the police for rape and under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012 on August 25. But he was arrested only late on Thursday and remanded to 14-days of judicial custody. Hours after his arrest, police moved him to a local hospital after he complained of chest pain.
But the court asked the police to produce the seer before the court and appeared unimpressed with his medical report. Sharanaru was taken to court in a wheelchair at around 4pm and remanded to police custody for four days till September 5.
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{{/usCountry}}“The court pulled up the police for not producing the accused before it at the time of the hearing. The court then passed an order to produce him before the court at the earliest and following he was brought to the court in a police van and produced him before the court,” said an official in the know of the development.
Chitradurga district and sessions judge BK Komala instructed prison officials to produce the seer before the court. During the hearing, the petitioners failed to produce the documents issued by the doctor regarding the health problem. The judge then adjourned the hearing and instructed Sharanaru to appear in the court in person.
The prosecution, which went out of its way to be considerate to the seer, requested that the accused be allowed to use video conference but the court dismissed the request. The judge asked the district jail authorities to submit a medical report based on which he was shifted to a hospital.
In its order, the court asked the police to ensure medical care in custody. It stressed that the seer should be taken to the hospital only if his health condition worsens. However, soon after the proceedings, the police took the seer back to the district hospital.
Judge Komala also gave directions that the accused seer should not be taken anywhere during police custody, ruling out any possibility of shifting him to a Bengaluru hospital. This came after the judge found that health condition of the seer was fine even though district health officer said the accused had complained of acute chest pain last night and two doctors from the district hospital examined him. Efforts seemed to be on to shift him to Bengaluru.
The two girls, aged 15 and 16, told state authorities on August 26 that Sharanaru had raped them for almost three years. The same day, the police registered a first information report (FIR) against the seer, charging him with rape and under provisions of the Pocso Act. But despite growing outrage and the seriousness of the charges, for seven days, the police didn’t move to interrogate the seer or take him in custody even as a number of politicians, including former chief minister BS Yediyurappa and a section of the state cabinet, publicly backed him and said the charges were linked to a power tussle within the monastery. After intense public pressure and speculation that the government was dragging its feet for political reasons, the seer was finally arrested late on Thursday night after his anticipatory bail was deferred by a local court.
The case involving Sharanaru, a religious leader of Karnataka’s politically powerful Lingayat community, has ignited fierce debate in Karnataka.
On Friday, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai moved to squash those allegations. “There is no need to respond to all these talk. I have already said that everything will happen in accordance with law. It is not right to comment on the case at the present situation,” Bommai said in the coastal city of Mangaluru in response to a question on delay in the seer’s arrest.
Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah sought an impartial probe by the police.
Home minister Araga Jnanendra said that the police were free to carry out the investigation. “In the Pocso case, the investigation of Murughashree, who has been arrested by the police, will be conducted according to the law of the land and there will be no government interference in any way,” he said.
In the morning, Sharanaru complained of chest pain and was taken to the district hospital, where doctors shifted him to the Intensive Care Unit immediately. They checked his blood pressure, sugar levels and conducted an ECG, CT scan for two hours, said district surgeon R Basavaraju. Basavaraju said that the seer was suffering from cardiac issues and needed intensive treatment.
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But as news spread that hospital authorities were planning to shift the seer to a hospital in Bengaluru, protests erupted at the hospital. Local residents and activists held placards demanding action against the seer and shouted slogans.
The allegations surfaced when the two girls told the Child Welfare Committee that they were sexually assaulted between January 1, 2019, and June 6 this year by the seer. The girls were students of a school run by the mutt in Chitradurga and lived in a hostel there. They left the mutt hostel in July this year. Based on their complaint, the FIR was registered with Mysuru police, which was later transferred to Chitradurga. HT has accessed a copy of the FIR. The seer has consistently denied the charges, and claimed they were motivated.
On Monday, the accused denied the allegations, claiming that it was part of a long-drawn conspiracy against him and vowed to come out clean.
“This is not the first time that there has been a conspiracy against the mutt but it has been there for the last 15 years,” Shivamurthy said. “These conspiracies stayed within the mutt but now have come out.”