Lingayat seer suicide case: K'taka Police file charge sheet, mentions role of woman devotee (Ld)

Ramnagar (Karnataka), Dec 16 (IANS) Karnataka Police have submitted a charge sheet in a local court in connection with the suicide case of Basavalinga Sri Swamiji of Kanchugal Bande Mutt in Magadi of Ramnagar district, officials said on Friday.

Ramnagar SP Santhosh Babu stated on Friday that the police have submitted 216-page charge sheet against the accused persons. As per the charge sheet, four persons were involved in the case, while three have been arrested.

The fourth accused B.C. Suresh, who had edited the video, is yet to be arrested. The police have considered 72 witnesses regarding the case, the official stated.

The investigations have revealed that the deceased Swamiji had written two death notes, one for the mutt and another for the police. The conspiracy was hatched against the Swamiji in February this year. The video calls were recorded in the month of April. The Swamiji committed suicide following the harassment on October 24, SP Santhosh Babu stated.

According to sources, the charge sheet has mentioned the role of Neelambike, a young woman and devotee studying engineering prominently. The accused woman nursed a deep grudge against the deceased Swamiji for insulting her. In collusion with other accused persons including another seer, she carried out the honey trap, police said.

The charge sheet cited that vengeance and greed were the reasons for honey trapping and torturing the deceased seer, which resulted in his suicide.

Mrutyunjaya Swamiji of Kannuru Mutt, Neelambike aka Chanda from Doddaballapur and Mahadevaiah, an advocate from Tumakuru have been arrested by the police in connection with the case.

The accused had confessed to the crime and told police that they hated the deceased seer and wanted to dethrone him.

Accused Mrutyunjaya Swamiji was eying the throne of cash rich Kanchugal Bade Mutt. The mutt had a large following of devotees, owned more than 80 acres of land near Bengaluru, reserved funds and ran a number of education institutions.

Accused seer, a cousin of deceased seer struggled for funds to run his mutt. He was dependent on Siddaganga Mutt of Tumakuru for funds to manage the show. But, Siddaganga Mutt had distanced himself from the accused Swamiji.

Accused nursed a deep grudge on the deceased seer for complaining against him to Siddganga Mutt seer, police investigation said.

He used another accused Neelambike to convince the deceased. Neelambike had good rapport with swamijis of Lingayat mutts. She was also close to the deceased seer. She was angry at him as he had recorded her conversation about bad-mouthing other swamijis and sent her audio clips to those swamijis.

Neelambike trapped the deceased seer and got the audio and video clips and handed it over to the accused seer. Advocate Mahadevaiah got them edited, and then the deceased seer was blackmailed.

The accused persons thought that Basavalinga Sri would step down. But, the seer committed suicide on October 24 in the premises of the mutt.