Lingayat Math sex scandal: Rape-accused Murugha seer released after 14 months
Chitradurga: Rape-accused Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru of the historical Murugha Math in Chitradurga was on Thursday released from prison after 14 months.
He was arrested last year on charges of raping minor girls staying at the residential hostel run by the Murugha Math.
The accused influential Lingayat seer spent 14 months in the Chitradurga district prison. The Karnataka High Court on November 8 granted the conditional bail to him.
The seer is facing charges under the POCSO Act, IPC sections, Atrocity Act, Juvenile Justice Act and Religious Institutions (Prevention of Misuse) Act. He was arrested after a high drama on September 1, 2022, and has been in jail since then.
The Karnataka High Court granted conditional bail to the rape accused. The High Court Bench headed by Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar restrained the accused seer from entering the premises of the math and also directed him to surrender his passport to the court. He also was asked to provide two sureties.