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

The Karnataka Police investigating the suicide case of Basavalinga Sri Swamiji of Kanchugal Bande Mutt in Magadi of Ramnagar district have submitted a charge sheet at the local court, police sources said on Friday.

The charge sheet prominently mentions the role of Neelambike, a young woman devotee who was studying engineering. The accused nursed a grudge against the deceased Swamiji for insulting her once. In collusion with other accused persons, including another seer she carried out the honey trap, police mentioned in the chargesheet.

The charge sheet mentions 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.



He used another accused Neelambike for setting up the deceased. Neelambike had good rapport with the Swamijis of Lingayat Mutts and 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 recorded some audios and discreetly shot some porn video clips, which she later handed over to the accused seer. The advocate got them edited and the 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.

The three 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 the cash-rich Kanchugal Bade Mutt. The mutt had a large following of devotees, owned more than 80 acres of land near Bengaluru, had huge reserved funds and ran a number of education institutions.

Accused Mrutyunjaya Swamiji, a cousin of the 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. The accused nursed a deep grudge against the deceased seer for complaining against him before the Siddganga Mutt seer, police investigation said.