After nearly a year in judicial custody, Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the pontiff of Chitradurga’s Murugharajendra Bruhanmutt, was released on bail on Thursday afternoon. Sharanaru had been accused of sexually harassing children within his mutt and was consequently booked under the POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) act.
Initially granted bail by the Karnataka High Court on November 8, Sharanaru’s release was subject to fulfilling bail conditions, subsequently addressed by his counsel Sandeep Patil, who approached the sessions court. Upon verification of the security guarantee, Judge BK Komala ordered his release from custody.
However, legal disputes arose when Sharanaru’s lawyers challenged the court’s decision to convert the body warrant into a judicial arrest warrant in another POCSO case. Following a legal tussle, the matter has been resolved, leading to Sharanaru’s release from judicial custody.
The case against Sharanaru emerged on August 26, 2022, when two girls filed a complaint at the Nazarbad Police Station in Mysuru, accusing him of sexual assault. Subsequently, Sharanaru was taken into custody on September 1, 2022, and had been held in judicial custody at Chitradurga Jail until the recent bail decision.
The allegations against Sharanaru involve accusations of raping two girls aged 15 and 16 between 2019 and 2022, leading to his booking by the police under the POCSO Act 2012 on August 25.
Sources By Agencies