High Court grants Swami bail in sexual harassment case
Swami has been granted an interim bail for 30 days
BENGALURU: Raghaveshwara Bharathi Swami of Ramachandra pura Math, who is accused of sexually harassing a 47-year-old singer, has been granted an interim bail for 30 days by the 36th City Civil and Sessions Court on Thursday.
After the High Court on Thursday morning dismissed swami’s petition seeking to quash the FIR filed against him, the swami’s advocates filed an anticipatory bail petition in the sessions court in the afternoon. Senior counsel B V Acharya represented swami and argued that singer and her husband were arrested by Honnavara police for blackmailing other singers. Only after that the singer’s daughter filed a rape case against swami. “Why didn’t the couple file a complaint against swami soon after she was sexually harassed? It is clear that the singer made her daughter to file complaint to tarnish swami’s reputation,” he argued.
Judge Mudigoudar, who heard the arguments, granted an interim bail to the accused. The bail conditions included that the accused should cooperate with the CID police who are probing the case and appear before them whenever required, should not travel abroad and should furnish a bond of Rs 2 lakh and surety by two people.
Earlier in the day, the High Court whileb giving green signal to CID to go ahead with its investigation against Raghaveshwara Bharathi Swami of Ramachandrapura Math had dismissed his petition seeking to quash the FIR accusing him of rape and other charges. The court which dismissed the petition of swamiji and vacated an earlier stay order, which had directed the investigating authority to not to arrest or interrogate the Swami.