Accused of sexually assaulting minors, Karnataka Lingayat mutt chief arrested | 10 points

Six days after a First Information Report (FIR) under rape charges was filed against Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the chief pontiff of the influential Lingayat mutt in Karnataka’s Chitradurga has finally been arrested.

Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the chief pontiff of a prominent Lingayat mutt, has been arrested by the Karnataka Police in a rape case. The seer has been sent to 14-day judicial custody, and the police will seek his remand in Chitradurga court today.

The seer was taken to a government hospital in Chitradurga for a medical check-up and then driven to an undisclosed location for questioning on Thursday, September 1. Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, however, claimed that he was framed in the case.

Apart from the seer, a total of five people, including the warden of the monastery's hostel, are accused in the case, which was registered in Mysusu after a complaint by two minor girls.

According to the complaint, two girls, aged 15 and 16, studying at the school run by the mutt, were sexually abused for over three-and-a-half years by the seer.

Here are the top points.

1) Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the chief pontiff of Jagadguru Murugarajendra Vidyapeetha mutt in Karnataka's Chitradurga, was booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (Pocso) for allegedly sexually assaulting minor girls. Six days after the allegations and seven days after the FIR, the seer has finally been held in the rape case. He was arrested by the police amid heavy police deployment in and around the Lingayat mutt. Deputy Superintendent of Police of Chitradurga will interrogate the seer.