Chitradurga SP Parashurama K confirmed the mutt chief’s arrest. “We have arrested the seer and procedures will follow. He is being questioned now,” he told The Indian Express.

The arrest came after police and the state government faced criticism for alleged inaction in the case. Several Dalit organisations staged protests Thursday, demanding the pontiff’s arrest.

Bharathiya Dalitha Sangarsha Samithi founder H Prakash Beeravara, who led a protest that blocked the car of Chitradurga Deputy Commissioner, said: “Everyone knows that he is sitting inside the mutt. What stops police from arresting him? It is clear that they have succumbed to pressure.”

According to police sources, the pontiff was taken into custody from the mutt around 10 pm after he had met devotees. He was taken to the Deputy SP’s office. Police had already issued a look-out circular against him.

Earlier Thursday, the pontiff had applied for anticipatory bail, and a sessions court had adjourned the hearing to Friday.

On August 26, the Mysuru police lodged a complaint against Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru under the POCSO Act and IPC section 376 relating to rape. The girl complainants had told members of the state Child Welfare Committee (CWC) that they were sexually assaulted between January 2019 and June 2022. The case was later transferred to the Chitradurga police.

The complaint in the case was filed by Chandrakumar C of the Mysuru district child protection unit, based on statements of the two girls.

The case was registered after the victims reached Mysuru and approached an NGO that works for human trafficking victims.

The FIR stated that the girls were counselled after which they said that they had been sexually abused. Later, the NGO approached the CWC, leading to the police complaint.

The mutt, a prominent and influential Lingayat education centre, was being frequented by political leaders in a bid to woo the community ahead of the Assembly elections next year.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had recently received ‘Ishtalinga Deekshe’ from Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru. Last Sunday, B S Yediyurappa, former Karnataka Chief Minister, had described the charges against the pontiff as “false”.

The mutt wields considerable clout and several state leaders, including Yediyurappa and Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, hail from the Lingayat community.