murugha mutt: Sexual Abuse of Minor Girls case: Murugha Mutt seer remanded to judicial custody till Sep 14

The district and sessions court in Chitradurga on Monday remanded the head of the Murugha Mutt, Shivamurthy Shivacharya Sharanaru, in judicial custody till September 14. The 64-year-old seer has been held in connection with a case of alleged sexual assault on two minor girls.

The seer, who was arrested on September 1 night, had been in police custody.

The sessions judge sent him to jail after his police custody ended. While in their custody, the police on Sunday conducted a mahajar at the pontiff’s room and the other places the minor girls had mentioned in their statement before the court in his presence. He was also subjected to a fertility test.

The Mysuru police had registered a case on August 26 against the seer under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, along with four others, after the two girl students approached Odanadi Seva Samsthe, a Mysuru-based non-profit.

Last Thursday’s police action came about after a local court video recorded the statements of the two minor girls in a closed-door hearing on Tuesday. The Chitradurga police also registered a case on the seer under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

Meanwhile, six couples got married at the Murugha Mutt on Monday in a mass marriage event in keeping with the tradition it has followed for the past 32 years.