Karnataka: Lingayat seer commits suicide after his name comes up in audio clip

In yet another controversy, a 28-year-old Lingayat seer was found dead at his mutt in Belagavi district in Karnataka early Monday morning.

Basava Siddalinga Swami, seer of Sri Guru Madiwaleshwar Math, was found hanging in his room. The seer’s attendants found his body after they forced open the door of his room when their calls went unanswered.

Sources in the mutt said that the seer was reportedly upset over an audio clip in which two women were purportedly heard discussing alleged cases of sexual assault at some Lingayat mutts in Karnataka.

He told his close followers recently that he was very upset that his name had figured in the audio clip in which the women were heard discussing "the character" of some seers and their alleged illicit relationships.

The police have recovered the seer’s purported suicide note and an investigation is on to ascertain the cause of his death. The content of the note is not known yet.

Basava Siddalinga Swami’s alleged suicide comes days after Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the head seer of an influential Lingayat mutt in Karnataka’s Chitradurga district, was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing two girls.