Karnataka: Third Minor Girl Alleges Sexual Assault by Murugha Mutt Head

New Delhi: A minor has registered a complaint against Lingayat seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru for allegedly sexually assaulting her. This is the third such complaint against Sharanaru, who heads the Murugha Mutt in Karnataka’s Chitradurga.

The Karnataka police have registered a first information report (FIR) against him based on the minor’s complaint, the News Minute reported. This is the second FIR against the religious leader.`

Shivamurthy is already under judicial custody till October 21, after he was arrested for allegedly raping two minor girls.

Sharanaru has denied the allegations and called them a conspiracy, BBC had reported.

The fresh complaint was filed by a 12-year-old girl who approached the Mysuru police along with her mother. She alleged that Shivamurthy sexually assaulted her for two years at the residential hostel managed by the Murugha math.

The news report said that the girl alleged that two other girls were also sexually assaulted by the seer.

Stanley, the chief of the NGO Odanadi, which helped the girl and her mother file the complaint, told TNM that it is unclear if the police are going to approach the other two girls for investigation.

An FIR has been registered with the Nazarbad police station of Mysuru city under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.

In September, the two minor girls mentioned above filed a complaint against the seer for allegedly raping them repeatedly, respectively. The seer was arrested six days after the FIR was registered against him. He was denied bail five times. In this case, he was also charged under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act along with the POCSO Act.

Featured image: Muragha Mutt chief seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru. Photo: Twitter

This article was first published on The Wire.