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 motive behind the murder was not yet clear, according to the police. Police said, the man went to a local market for shopping along with his family. He was shot dead when he was on his way back home.
In his previous marriage to Inderpreet Kaur, which ended in a divorce in 2016, Mann has two children -- son Dilshan and daughter Seerat -- who are currently staying in the US with their mother. Both children had attended Mann's swearing-in ceremony at Khatkar Kalan on March 16.
A spokesman for the Chief Minister's office said all domestic consumers in the state would be eligible to get zero bills if their consumption is up to 600 units in every billing cycle. This will give a big reprieve to the domestic consumers who have to hitherto shell out huge money every month in the form of power tariff.
On receiving information about the incident, SP City Dinesh Kumar Singh, along with police force, reached the spot. The injured youths were sent to the hospital for treatment and the matter is being investigated.
The Chief Minister said the government is fully sensitive towards checking cross-border infiltration in Punjab. He said Punjab Police is constantly in touch with the Border Security Force (BSF) and other agencies for this purpose.
While briefing the officers, the DGP said the topmost priority of the government, as directed by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, is to further strengthen the fight against drugs to make Punjab a drug-free state, besides eliminating the gangster culture, maintaining law and order, and detection of crime.
