Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, 64, heads the Murugha Math, one of many key Lingayat seminaries. 

He has been named in a case below Safety of Kids from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and below the regulation defending Scheduled Castes and Tribes, as one of many survivors belongs to the Dalit group.

The arrest occurred round 10.15 pm after daylong protests by the civil society and varied organisations throughout Karnataka’s Chitradurga and Mysuru districts.

The police exercised excessive warning in view of regulation and order points – barricading the entrance door of the mutt hours earlier than the arrest and taking him out by the again door.

He has been moved to the Deputy Superintendent’s workplace in Challakere, in Chitradurga. It’s not identified but whether or not he might be produced earlier than a court docket tonight.

The case was filed on August 26 after the ladies – each college students of Murugha Math — approached a non-governmental organisation in Mysuru. The 2 teenagers alleged that they have been abused for years.

Their earlier try to file a grievance in June-July was foiled after the Bengaluru police rang up the mutt authorities. Sources mentioned officers from the mutt had come and escorted them again.

Given the Lingayat group’s political clout, the state’s political leaders, slicing throughout occasion strains, have maintained silence on the problem.  Earlier this month, Shivamurthy Sharanaru inducted Congress’s Rahul Gandhi into the Lingayat group at this math.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s predecessor, former Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had publicly backed him, saying the seer has been “falsely implicated”.

“Even whether it is delayed, justice have been given to the ladies,” mentioned advocate Srinivas DC, who’s representing them.