JOIN US First Additional Sessions Court Judge Vishwanath B Suryavamshi on Wednesday remanded Banjara Samaj Gurupeeth seer Sardar Sevalal Sanganabasava Swami in one-day judicial custody in connection with a sexual assault case.
The hearing was adjourned till Thursday. The court, however, granted bail to the mother of the seer, one of the accused in the case.
On Tuesday, the judge had issued a non-bailable warrant against the seer after he failed to appear in person during the last three hearings in connection with the case. A police team led by CPI Pampapathy, PSI Nagamma and staff executed the warrant by arresting the seer from a devotee’s house in the city and produced him before the court on Wednesday.
The seer was accused of having sex with a woman for eight years, promising to marry her and later betraying her.
The victim, a city-based schoolteacher, had lodged a complaint with the Davangere women’s police station on June 26, 2013, charging the seer with sexually assaulting her. She accused mother and sister of the seer of aiding and abetting the seer.
On April 4, the victim filed another complaint at the women’s police station stating that the seer, attired in plain white clothes, visited her house and pleaded with her to not appear before the court for hearing on April 7. The victim furnished the photos to the police, showing the seer in plain clothes at her house.
Meanwhile, Banjara community leader and Davangere APMC president Raghavendra Naik has said that the community has distanced itself from the Sanganabasava Swami and that he was never accepted as the pontiff of Sevalal Gurupeeth.