The Ramchandrapura Mutt’s tainted seer Raghaveshwara Swami's followers have allegedly targeted Congress leader Ugrappa by sending him death threats on Facebook.
“The Facebook group called Swachcha Brahmana Vedike, who are supporters of the Mutt, had put up a post on December 19, targeting the government, a few communities and me. They branded the government impotent, said that the government does not have the courage to harm other communities like it was harming Brahmins and that I should be shot dead,” Ugrappa told TNM.
Ugrappa said that the post had 99 comments and read out a few:
“The impotent and government with a eunuch leader is only targeting the Brahmin community.”
“They do not have the courage to touch the Mutts of Vokkaligas and Lingayats, Churches or Masjids.”
“The government will last for only five years but Mutts and temples will last until the sun and moon dies. For people who do not want Brahmins to prosper, we will show you that we are united.”
“We should teach those who interfere with the Mutt a lesson. The Congress leaders must be punished and then make statements. You do not have the right to talk about morality.”
On Friday, Ugrappa had filed a complaint with the Vidhana Soudha police station that the group had issued him a death threat.
On Saturday, Arun Kumar Hegde, was arrested in Shivamogga and another man from Davanagere in connection with the case, according to media reports.
Why were the death threats issued and how was it connected with the seer embroiled in various cases?
In October 2014, a woman named Premalatha from Shivamogga’s Honnavara taluk had filed a complaint accusing Ramachandrapura Mutt’s Raghaveshwara Swami of rape. The case is embroiled in allegations and counter-allegations as the woman and her husband have been accused of blackmailing the seer.
Later, Premalatha’s daughter, Anshumathi, had filed a complaint in Bengaluru alleging that her mother was raped by the seer.
However, a charge sheet was filed only a year after the complaint was lodged when another woman lodged a complaint with the Girinagar police saying that she was raped by the seer in 2006. The case was handed over to the CID.
“At that time, I had urged the DCP to file a chargesheet as it had been almost a year since the complaint was filed. However, on December 20, members of another group affiliated with the same Mutt called Akhila Avyaka Vakuta visited me with a problem,” Ugrappa said.
Ugrappa said that the members of Akhila Avyaka Vakuta including industrialists MN Bhat, CHS Bhat, who was also the seer’s right hand man once upon a time and others had approached him.
“They said that the seer was not the right person for being the Mutt’s head and that they needed a new administrator. In the Premalatha case, a sessions court had found that the seer had had consensual sex with Premalatha and acquitted him of rape on 1 April 2016, but a revision plea was filed on April 29 at the Karnataka High Court. Also a PIL was filed to change the Mutt’s administration and this group had come to ask for my assistance,” Ugrappa added.
“In response to this, on Decmeber 20, I had told the media that since he is a seer and a devotee of Lord Rama, it should be up to him to decide if he can still continue as the Mutt’s administrator. Hence this group has sent me death threats,” Ugrappa said.