New Delhi:The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Karnataka government on a plea challenging the Karnataka High Court order, which allowed the bail plea of the pontiff of Murugha Mutt, Chitradurga, in a case lodged under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Satish Chandra Sharma, in an order issued on January 29, said: “Permission to file Special Leave Petition (SPL) is granted. Issue notice, returnable within four weeks. Dasti, in addition, is permitted. Liberty is granted to the petitioner to serve notice through standing counsel for the State of Karnataka”.
The bench, on a plea filed by the father of the victim girl, ordered to tag the matter with a pending petition filed by H Ekanthaiah challenging the High Court quashing an order that restrained Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru from discharging duties as pontiff of the Mutt after his arrest in the case. The pontiff was arrested in the case on September 1, 2022.
In November 2023, the High Court allowed Sharanaru’s prayer for bail in a case of sexual abuse of minor girls residing in a hostel headed by him. The father of the victim moved to the apex court through advocate Aparna Bhat. The father's plea, in the apex court, said: “The High Court has proceeded to hold a mini-trial at the stage of bail consideration by comparing the statements made by the victim girls under Section 161 CrPC and Section 164 CrPC”.
The plea said the pontiff of the Mutt wields extraordinary power and influence as is clear from the fact that even though the two minor victim girls were being sexually abused by him for three-and-a-half years and one-and-a-half years respectively, both girls had been threatened into silence by respondent No 3 and his accomplices.
The plea contended that a prima facie case of aggravated sexual assault is made out in the present case and the High Court ought not to have doubted the credibility of the victim girls while considering a bail application. “That the evidence of rape given by the minor victim girls constitutes primary evidence that alone is sufficient to convict Respondent No 3 with or without corroboration. It is also important to note that both girls have been consistent right from the very beginning and there is no reason to doubt their credibility or trustworthiness at the stage of consideration bail," said the plea.
The plea said both victim girls have been consistent in their account of the sexual abuse in their statements before the police under Section 161 CrPC, before the magistrate under Section 164 CrPC and before the doctor, who conducted the medical examination. The plea also said the High Court order had committed gross error in concluding that the provisions of the SC/ST Act had been wrongly invoked in the charge sheet by relying on the irrelevant consideration that if the accused intended to sexually exploit girls belonging to SC/ST, the girls belonging to those communities would not have been admitted to the hostel.
Read more:Karnataka: Sri Murugha Mutt Pontiff Arrested In Allegedly Sexual Assault Case Of Minor Girls
