Madras High Court grants conditional bail to Chennai temple priest in rape case

The Madras High Court on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, granted conditional bail to Karthick Munusamy, a 45-year-old priest of the famous Kalikambal Temple at Parry’s Corner in Chennai, in a rape case in which he was arrested by the Virugambakkam All Women Police on May 28, 2024.

The Madras High Court on Tuesday, June 18, 2024, granted conditional bail to Karthick Munusamy, a 45-year-old priest of the famous Kalikambal Temple at Parry’s Corner in Chennai, in a rape case in which he was arrested by the Virugambakkam All Women Police on May 28, 2024.

Justice T.V. Thamilselvi granted the relief on condition that the accused person appear before the investigating officer regularly and cooperate with the investigation.

The charge against the petitioner was that he had befriended a woman devotee in 2021 and developed a sexual relationship with her. According to the complainant, he had raped her after spiking a drink and thereafter tied a thali around her neck for them live as a married couple. But when she conceived a baby in 2023, he forced her to undergo an abortion and then made her have sexual relationship with his friend in return for money.

In her complaint to the police in May 2024, the victim, an engineering graduate turned television compere, had also accused the petitioner of having intimidated her using some of her nude photographs. She also claimed to have learnt about the accused person having cheated many other women.