Bengaluru: Double trouble for Raghaveshwara Bharathi
Cases of rape and financial misappropriation against the seer.
BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday ordered issue of emergent notice to against Raghaveshwara Bharathi, pontiff of the Ramachandrapura Mutt, following the criminal revision petition filed by the state government through CID challenging the order of a sessions court dated March 31, which dismissed all charges against the seer, in a rape case.
The high court has admitted the petition by the CID, and has adjourned the matter to June 22. A lower court had dismissed charges against the pontiff on various grounds, mainly citing that neither the call records nor DNA samples derived from cloth stains had provided clinching evidence.
A singer, had accused Raghaveshwara of raping her or more than 150 times between 2011 and 2014. In another separate case, the high court has issued notice to the seer and others after few devotees of the mutt, including a Sanskrit scholar, an industrialist and an artiste approached the court filing a PIL seeking to remove him from the post of head of the mutt.
According to the PIL filed by E Ishwara Bhat and five others, the mutt has a large following among the Havyaka Brahmins and alleged Raghaveshwara of “large scale mismanagement and financial irregularities,” among other things.
The PIL sought an interim order to stop Raghaveshwara from discharging the functions of the Havyaka Brahmin mutt and a final order that includes direction to the government to frame a regulatory law for all mutts in Karnataka.
VTU VC plea dismissed
The High Court on Thursday dismissed the petition filed by suspended Vice-Chancellor of Visvesavaraya Technological University (VTU), H Maheshappa, who had approached the court against his suspension by Governor Vajubhai Vala.
The Governor had issued the suspension order on March 14, after the deadline issued to Maheshappa expired on March 13. He faced suspension following allegations of corruption in recent appointments, regularisation of services, and in handing out building contracts for a while now.