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Lingayat seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru of Chitradurga Murugha Mutt has been acquitted in a case of alleged sexual assault of two minors by a trial court in Chitradurga district on Wednesday, November 26.
Judge Gangadhara Hadapad of the Second Additional District and Civil Court in Chidtradurga delivered the verdict in the POCSO case that was registered in August 2022. The seer, who was present in court, left for the Virakta Mutt in Davangere after the verdict.
The order copy is awaited.
KV Stanley, co-founder of Odanadi Seva Samsthe, who had helped the girls file their complaints, told TNM, “It is unfortunate what happened. We will see the order copy and see where things went wrong. One can only hope that the departments that were supposed to protect the children including the CWC and the police did their job well.”
Another POCSO case against the seer is still pending, and a third case pertains to concealing information about minors living in the Mutt-run institutions.
The case pertains to one filed by two minors. The two girls aged 15 and 16, had accused Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the chief pontiff of a prominent Lingayat mutt in Chitradurga, of sexually assaulting them for several years.
The two students escaped from the residential hostel run by the mutt, approached the Odanadi Seva Samsthe and lodged a complaint with Mysuru police on August 26. They later recorded statements before a judicial magistrate on August 30, detailing years of alleged abuse.
Police arrested the seer, the Mutt’s hostel warden Shivamurthy, junior pontiff Basavadithya, Matha secretary Paramashivaiah, and advocate Gangadharaiah on September 1, 2022.
The initial FIR invoked offences under the POCSO Act against the seer and the other four. Later, charges under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act were added as one survivor is Dalit.
A second FIR was filed at the Nazarbad police station of Mysuru city following the direction of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) when a 12-year-old girl alleged similar abuse. The girl approached the Mysuru police along with her mother and filed a complaint against the seer. She alleged that Shivamurthy sexually assaulted her for two years at the residential hostel managed by the Murugha mutt.
After spending 14 months in judicial custody and facing repeated bail denials, he was granted conditional bail by the Karnataka High Court in November 2023. A Supreme Court stay followed in April 2024, but after witness examination was completed, the trial court ordered his release in October 2024.
