Chitradurga: Following the imprisonment of Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, the Virakta Mutt Chief Pontiff Basavaprabhu Swami has been appointed as the stand-in pontiff of Murugha Mutt situated here.
The mutt officials appointed Basavaprabhu, who is a disciple of Shivamurthy Sharanaru, out of fears that the state government would appoint the chief pontiff of its choice, which they did not want.
The nomination for Basavaprabhu Swami was made officially through a letter signed by Murugha seer.
Virakta mutt is located in Karnataka’s Davangere district.
The Murugha Mutt secretary SB Vastramath will get the power of attorney to conduct day-to-day business and pay salaries of over 3,000 employees of Sri Jagadguru Murugha Vidyapeetha.
Murugha Sree has been imprisoned for allegedly sexulally abusing two minor girls who were staying in the hostel run by the mutt.
The seer was arrested on September 1 by Chitradurga police under POCSO Act after a case was filed on August 26 after the victims approached a non-governmental organisation in Mysuru.
As many as six people, including the warden of mutt’s hostel, are accused in the case. The victims, in their teens, were sexually abused by Murugha seer for over three-and-a-half years.
A couple of days back, a fresh case was filed against the seer for allegedly sexually abusing four other minor girls.
This is the second case filed against the seer under the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The complaint was registered by the parents of the children at Nazarabad police station in Mysuru.
