Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Apr 2: The Karnataka High Court has quashed a rape case filed against Sreemad Jagadguru Shankaracharya Sri Sri Raghaveshwara Bharati Swamy of Shree Ramachandrapura Math, Gokarna, citing a significant nine-year delay in reporting the alleged incidents.

Justice M Nagaprasanna, presiding over the bench, delivered the order, effectively terminating the legal proceedings against the revered Hindu seer.

The case stemmed from allegations made by a former disciple who accused the seer of raping her twice: once in 2006, when she was 15 years old, and again in 2012, when she was an adult.

Raghaveshwara Bharati Swamy had filed a petition in the High Court in 2021, challenging the trial court proceedings and seeking their quashing.

In its judgment, the High Court stated that the proceedings before the first additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM), Bengaluru, including the charge sheet, were quashed. A critical factor in the court's decision was the "no satisfactory explanation" provided for the nine-year delay in registering the complaint.

The court emphasized the importance of addressing delays in reporting sexual assault cases, particularly under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and its potential impact on the validity of the proceedings.

"The entire proceeding against the petitioner stands vitiated. Permitting further trial, in the case at hand, would undoubtedly become an abuse of the process of the law and result in miscarriage of justice. I therefore deem it appropriate to exercise my jurisdiction under Section 482 of the Cr PC and take off the Damocles sword, hanging on the head of the petitioner (Swamiji)," the judgment stated.

The court also found that the magistrate's cognizance of the final report and the issuance of process demonstrated a 'non-application of mind.'

Furthermore, the High Court highlighted a procedural irregularity in the filing of the charge sheet. The charge sheet was filed by an officer from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) before the CID office was officially designated as a ‘police station’ by the Karnataka government in 2024. The court ruled that, without this designation, the CID officer lacked the authority to file the charge sheet.

"The officer in-charge in the office of the CID cannot be an officer in-charge of a police station, without at the outset the office of the CID being declared as a police station," the court stated, thus invalidating the charge sheet.

In her complaint, the complainant, who stated her parents were poor farmers, alleged that she studied at the residential school run by the mutt. She claimed that the seer had called her to his private room under the pretext of correcting her "deficiencies" based on divine inspiration. She alleged that he sexually assaulted her and threatened her with a curse if she revealed the incident.

She further alleged that the seer later arranged her marriage to a devotee, which subsequently faced difficulties. When she confronted the seer, she claimed he raped her again and instructed her to meet him whenever he wished.