Lingayat mutt sex scandal: K'taka court to pronounce order today
Darpan News Desk IANS, 23 Sep, 2022 11:49 AM
Bengaluru, Sep 23 (IANS) A local court in Chitradurga will, on Friday, pronounce its verdict on the bail petition of rape accused Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaruo in the Lingayat mutt sex scandal case.
Second Additional District and Sessions' court Judge B.K. Komala, who had earlier flayed the prosecution for providing preferential treatment to the accused seer and trying to shift him to Bengaluru, will pronounce the order.
According to sources, the accused seer is likely to be discharged from the hospital on Friday. After the angiogram, the blood pressure, saturation reading have become normal, heart surgeons Dr Mahesh Murthy and Dr Parameshwar stated.
The accused was allowed treatment at the Meggaon Hospital of Shivamogga considering his heart ailment on Wednesday. Murugha Sharanaru was arrested following the complaint by two minor girls, who accused him of sexually exploiting them and threatening them.
They had approached Mysuru NGO Odanadi and later, the NGO pursued the case. Following a dramatic turn of events, accused Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru was arrested from the mutt premises and kept in the prison. Later, he was handed over to police custody.
Murugha Sharanaru is booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. The girls are being kept at the government facility.
Meanwhile, allegations have surfaced that the accused seer has been sexually violating minor children for over a decade. He had a well established network in the mutt to exploit the girls. Junior pontiffs and many progressive thinkers have challenged that he had given property and money of the mutt at his will to the victims of sexual assault.
The foundation stone of the cancer hospital, the first of its kind cancer care in north India, was laid by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on December 30, 2013. At that time Parkash Singh Badal was the Chief Minister of Punjab in a coalition of the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government.
The leader, who complained of uneasiness on Monday night, was taken to hospital at around 8 a.m. this morning, where she was declared brought dead. Sonali Phogat had contested the 2019 Haryana Assembly election from Adampur and lost to Congress candidate Kuldeep Bishnoi.
During investigation, it was found that Swapna is a school dropout but managed to get a degree certificate from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University. Based on the fake certificate and influence of high ranking officials like Sivasankar, she secured a plush job in the IT department which was headed by Vijayan.
Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann asked Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF) Pankaj Kumar to enhance vigil at the borders of the state for checking smuggling of drugs and weapons from across the border. The Director General had called on the Chief Minister here on July 31.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sukhchain Singh Gill, while addressing his weekly press conference here, said they have recovered 11.73 kg heroin, 20 kg opium, 9 kg ganja, 5.76 quintals of poppy husk, and 28,000 tablets of Pharma opioids, besides recovering Rs 20 lakh drug money after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas.
Addressing a gathering here while handing over appointment letters to the newly recruited 4,358 constables in Punjab Police, the Chief Minister said the state government has conducted the entire recruitment process in a transparent and fair manner.
