Lingayat strongman and former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Tuesday, November 8 came down heavily on the rape-accused Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru saying that the seer has “committed an unpardonable crime which is known to the world." This comes months after Yediyurappa defended the Lingayat leader when he was initially booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act in August this year.
Speaking to reporters in Udupi district of Karnataka, the BJP leader condemned the actions of the seer for the first time since the controversy broke out. "It should be condemned by all and the Chitradurga Mutt seer should get stringent punishment," he stated.
Earlier in August, when the seer of the Lingayat seminary was booked under the POCSO Act, Yediyurappa had dismissed the complaints describing them as fake. “The allegations against the seer are fake. The investigations will also reveal people involved in framing the seer.” Yediyurappa had said. In contrast to Yediyurappa, who dismissed the complainants, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had taken a more pragmatic position. Bommai had said that the law will take its course in the case and the truth will come out from the probe.
Meanwhile, the judicial custody of the rape accused seer is ending on Tuesday, November 8 and he will be produced before the Second Additional and Sessions' Court in Chitradurga. The other persons accused in the case include Rashmi, who was a warden at the hostel managed by the Murugha mutt, and Paramashivaiah, a former manager of the mutt.
The trio were booked after two minor girls filed a complaint against Shivamurthy accusing him sexually assaulting them for years. In the complaint, they said that one of them had been sexually assaulted for one-and-a-half years and the other for three-and-a-half years. They also mentioned that 11 others were sexually assaulted by Shivamurthy. Along with the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, he was also charged under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act as one of the survivors is from the Dalit community.
In October, the Karnataka police registered a third rape complaint against Shivamurthy after a 12-year-old girl filed a complaint alleging that she was sexually assaulted by him. One week later on October 21, Karnataka police registered another FIR against Murugha Sharanaru for illegal custody of abandoned children.