The 45-year-old woman, following whose complaint of rape a charge sheet has been filed against Sri Ramachandrapura Mutt seer Raghaveshwara Bharathi, on Tuesday alleged that the seer had instigated some of his devotees to issue life threats to the two key witnesses in the case.
The woman, accompanied by her husband, submitted a petition in this regard to V.S. Ugrappa, chairman of the ‘Committee on preventing sexual violence against women and children’ on Tuesday.
While submitting the petition, she alleged that the seer had recently made a provocative speech in which he had urged his devotees to protect him with respect to the rape case. After this, key witnesses had started getting threatening posts on Facebook, she alleged. In one such post, a follower of the seer had warned that the witness would face the fate similar to that of writer M.M. Kalburgi, who was recently assassinated.
When Mr. Ugrappa asked if she wanted the committee to recommend to the government to give additional security to her, she and her husband refused it.
The complainant alleged that the police were yet to file an FIR though she had taken up the issue with them. They were insisting on removing the seer’s name from the complaint, she alleged.
She accuses Raghaveshwara Bharathi of instigating followers to issue the threats
