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 police have identified four shooters behind the crime, an official statement said. Moosewala, who left his house at around 5 p.m. on May 29 along with two persons -- Gurwinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh (cousin) -- was shot dead by unidentified people.
The official added that a case was registered on September 25, 2020, against the private firm and others on the allegations of causing losses to the tune of Rs 2040.63 crore to the consortium of 12 banks led by PNB.
The CBI had registered a case on April 13, 2016 on the request of Chandigarh Administration and had taken over the investigation of the FIR earlier registered at Police Station, Sector-26, Chandigarh.
Bishnoi, who was brought from New Delhi after procuring the transit remand from Patiala House court, was produced in a Mansa court in Punjab at around 4 a.m. amid high-level security after his medical check-up.
The police have also recovered an illegal weapon and live cartridge from the criminal. The accused has been identified as Aakash, a native of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh.
