The seer was arrested on Thursday amid growing demand to take action after the allegation of sexual abuse against him.
Bengaluru: A day after Karnataka police was arrested allegations sexual assault under POCSO Act, Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, a Lingayat seer of Murugha mutt, was on Friday sent to police custody for four days. Sharanaru was taken to the court on a wheelchair from the intensive care unit of a hospital in Chitradurga where the seer got admitted on Friday morning due to health complications.
While the police wanted to keep Sharanaru for five days for questioning, the court slammed the police for not informing it that he was shifted to a hospital from the jail and granted four days’ custody.
The seer was arrested on Thursday amid growing demand to take action after the allegation of sexual abuse against him. Shivamurthy’s aide, however, had claimed that he surrendered before the police.
Also Read: Karnataka: Lingayat seer, charged with sexual assault, arrested by police
Earlier Karnataka’s Chitradurga had witnessed protest after the Lingayat seer had returned to the Lingayat mutt. The protesters had demanded strict action against the accused seer. The Karnataka police had detained him in an alleged sexual assault case involving minors.
A complaint of sexual assault was lodged at a Mysuru police station by two minor girls following which an FIR was registered against the seer. The police filed FIR under various sections of POCSO Act. He was later detained by the police.
According to the report, the victims are students of a school run by the Lingayat mutt. They both had approached an NGO and had narrated their ordeal. The matter was reported to the police. Based on the complaint, police had filed an FIR. The police have registered a case against five persons including the warden of the mutt’s hostel.
As per the report, the girls are minor in age and were living in the hostel under the Murugha mutt. They were been sexually harassed for more than three years.
