'He made me drink alcohol, disrobed me...': Harrowing charges continue to emerge against Lingayat mutt seer

More shameful and harrowing allegations continue to emerge against Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, one of Karnataka’s most influential seers who is accused of raping minor girls. 

The two minor girls aged 15 and 16, who have accused the seer of sexually assaulting them, alleged that he would give them “chocolates laced with something”. 

“He'd make me sit, would drink alcohol and hurl abuses at me,” alleged one of the girls, according to the police charge sheet. 

“He made the warden send girls to his room,” one of them claimed. 

These allegations emerged on Monday during the hearing by a local court which extended the seer’s judicial custody by another week. 

Sharanaru, who has been accused of sexually assaulting at least two girls studying in a high school run by Jagadguru Murugarajendra Vidyapeetha Mutt, is currently lodged in Chitradurga jail after he was arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act on September 1. He was arrested a week after an FIR was registered on August 27.

“He disrobed me, and raped me. I begged him, saying 'we are children from poor families',” NDTV quoted one of the two girls as alleging. 

The other girl told the magistrate that she was sexually assaulted multiple times and was threatened at knifepoint. 

“Warden Rashmi sent me to Swami's room through a backdoor. When I entered, I saw he was drinking. He offered me fruits, after eating which I fell unconscious. When I regained consciousness, I had no clothes on me. He threatened me at knifepoint when I refused to cooperate. If any students refused to go to Swami's room, warden Rashmi would beat them up,” the girl alleged. 

In the 694-page charge sheet submitted before the district’s second additional and sessions court on October 27, police have provided a detailed account of the assault shared by the woman, who was 13 at the time of the incident.

The survivor detailed how she was summoned by the seer to his room every night and sexually assaulted before being sent back to her hostel at 4.30am or 5am.

On the allegation of rape and murder of a minor girl who resisted abuse in the mutt by the accused seer, the SP said that the victims of first case have stated that one girl was raped and murdered.

The investigations so far have shown that the girl died after falling from the train in Hindupur Railway police station limits in Andhra Pradesh. The case is being closed as an accidental death.