The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), the apex child rights body in the country, has taken suo motu cognisance of the POCSO case against a seer of an influential Lingayat mutt in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district. The NCPCR, in a letter to the Karnataka Superintendent of Police on August 30, has asked the police to conduct an inquiry into the matter, and not disclose the survivors’ identities during the process of investigation. The child rights body has asked that a detailed report, along with other relevant documents, be submitted by the police within seven days.
Meanwhile, the two survivors were produced in a district and sessions’ court in Chitradurga to record their statements on Tuesday, August 30. The statements were recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure before the judge in confidential proceedings. Statements before a magistrate under section 164 of the CrPC can be considered key evidence in a crime. Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the accused, has moved a local court for anticipatory bail and notice has been issued to Child Protection Unit officers and the survivors.
Dr Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the chief pontiff of the Jagadguru Murugarajendra Vidyapeetha Mutt, was accused of sexually assaulting two minor girls — who are 15 and 16 years old respectively — who stayed at the mutt’s residential facility. In the police complaint, the survivors alleged that Shivamurthy allegedly sexually assaulted one of them over the past 3.5 years, and the other for the past 1.5 years.
Based on the complaint, the Mysuru police have registered a First Information Report, which also mentions four other staff members of the math as accused. On Monday, August 29, amid rumours of his arrest, Shivamurthy said that he was not going to run away expressed his confidence that he was going to be cleared of all charges. “This is not the first time we have faced problems. It has been happening for the last 15 years. Earlier, all these issues were fought internally, but now this matter has been raised outside the math. I request people not to fall for any rumours. We are giving all cooperation and I am sure I will come out of this,” he said.