An influential Hindu seer or 'godman' in Karnataka, Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, was arrested on Thursday night, days after a complaint was registered against him for sexually assaulting two underage students.
He has been sentenced to 14 days of judicial custody.
Two underage girls alleged that the seer had raped them between January 2019 and June 2022 during their stay in the seminary hostel. Following their complaints, he was booked under sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.
Both girls fled the educational institution on August 26 and were found by the Mysuru city-based NGO Odanadi Seva Samsthe. Later, the NGO filed complaints against the Hindu seer Sharanaru on behalf of the two girls.
The girls also said that Sharanaru used to call them inside his chambers to assault them. He has been assaulting one of the girls for the past three-and-a-half years, and the other one for the past one-and-a-half years.
The arrest came after many Dalit organizations staged a protest against him, since one of the girls belonged to the Dalit community.
Many activists have alleged that the Karnataka police were reluctant to arrest him as he belongs to the Lingayat denomination of Hinduism, a prominent and influential religious community in the state.
A group of the advocates also wrote to the Registrar General of the Karnataka High Court alleging that the investigation against the seer "is not being carried out in an unbiased, free and fair manner."
"He (the seer) has not even been summoned for investigation, or his medical examination conducted. These lacunae in the investigation show that there is already prejudice caused on the part of the investigation... The accused herein being an influential person not even being summoned by the investigating officer," the advocate wrote in the letter.
Supporting Sharanaru, former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State Chief B.S. Yediyurappa has dismissed the allegations against him, calling it a conspiracy. Not just the state's ruling BJP but members of the opposition Congress Party also support the seer or refuse to make any remarks.
Apart from the seer, four other people from the seminary were named in the police complaint, including the seminary warden.
Earlier this week, addressing a press conference, seer Sharanaru said that allegation is part of a conspiracy against him.