Bengaluru police have registered another FIR against seer of the Ramachandrapura Mutt Raghaveshwara Bharati after a woman from Uttara Kannada alleged that she was sexually assaulted by the seer for six years.
According to a report in Kannada daily Kannada Prabha, a 25-year-old woman from Uttara Kannada district lodged a complaint with the Girinagar police station on Saturday. This is the second complaint of rape against the seer, who has been accused of raping a singer who worked with the Mutt.
In August 2014, a woman named Anshumathi filed a complaint with the police, accusing the seer of sexually assaulting her mother Premalatha, who was a Ramakatha singer for the Mutt. Her complaint came after the Uttara Kannada district police arrested both her mother and father Divakar for allegedly blackmailing the seer. In the months since, the case has taken several twists and turns, including five judges recusing themselves from the case.
The seer had dared the police to arrest him, saying: “have a question for those who come to arrest me, will you arrest the sentiments of thousands of people? Do you have jails to imprison lakhs of hearts?”
According to the Kannada Prabha report, the woman has said in the complaint that the seer allegedly sexually assaulted her between 2006 and 2012, and told her that she would be destroyed if she told anybody about it.
The report quotes K Vimala of Janawadi Mahila Sanghatane as saying that the woman bore the suffering in silence as she did not know how to take on a religious leader who belonged to the same community that she did.
Raghaveshwara Bharati Swami heads the Ramachandrapura Mutt in Hosanagara, Shivamogga district, which is a Mutt of the Havyaka Brahmin community.