Bengaluru: Criminal Investigation Department has filed the charge sheet against Raghaveshwara Bharati Swami, pontiff of Shivamogga district-based Ramachandrapura Mutt here on Saturday.
According to sources the 1,340-page charge sheet filed by the Criminal Investigation Department before the First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate contained the statements of 151 witnesses.
IPC Sections 376(2)(N) (repeated rape) and 508 (act caused by inducing person to believe that he/she will be rendered an object of the divine displeasure), among others, have been invoked in the case.
Material evidence and the Forensic Science Laboratory report has been submitted before court and the investigation would continue into the case, sources said.
Raghaveshwara Bharati Swami, of Sri Ramachandrapura Math (Shivamogga district) was first accused of raping his devotee Premalatha Shastri. This particular high profile case has taken many interesting turns in the past year after Premalatha’s daughter alleged that her mother was raped by the seer on several occasions in the past few years.
A second complaint filed against the seer is also being probed by the CID. One Yakshagana artist had filed a complaint that she was sexually harassed by the seer and he had raped her in 2006 when she was staying in the math’s hostel in Hosanagar. The complaint was filed at Girinagar station which has now been transferred to CID.
