Karnataka seer Shivamurthy Swami accused of sexually abusing minor girls shifted to ICU

DAVANAGERE: The pontiff of Murugha Mutt in Karnataka’s Chitradurga, Shivamurthy Swami, who was arrested late Thursday night for alleged sexual abuse of high school girls and sent to judicial custody, has been shifted to the intensive care unit (ICU) ward of the district hospital after a complaint of chest pain.The 64-year-old seer, booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act, 2012, and Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), was arrested at 10.20pm from his mutt by Chitradurga police. After a medical examination, the pontiff was produced before the district court judge who sent him to 14-day judicial custody. The pontiff was then taken to Chitradurga district prison.As per the reports, he was admitted to the ICU of the district hospital after he complained of chest pain in the prison. Doctors at the district hospital performed ECG and other tests as the pontiff suffers from hypertension and diabetics. He was later sent for MRI scanning. As per the hospitals sources, the seer's vitals like blood pressure and blood sugar levels are fluctuating.Shivamurthy Swami's anticipatory bail application is likely to be taken for hearing today noon.On August 26, Shivamurthy Swami and four others were booked under Pocso Act and IPC section 376 for rape at Nazarbad police station in Mysuru. The case was later transferred to Chitradurga police.It is alleged that the girls, aged 15 and 16, studying in a school run by the mutt and residing in a hostel also run by the monastery, were sexually abused between January 2019 and June 2022.District police invoked the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 (Act) against the pontiff as one victim is from the SC community.