CHITRADURGA: Basavaprabhu Sri, who is part of the Davanagere Virakta Mutt, has been chosen to be the interim pontiff of the Chitraduga Murugha Mutt instead of Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, a Lingayat seer who has been accused of rape. This was confirmed by sources on Tuesday.
But this decision is likely to face strong opposition, since many pontiffs have made it clear that they don't like Basavaprabhu Sri's appointment. In this case, the seers of Lingayat mutts are meeting in secret to come up with a plan for how to stop the appointment.
Sources said that the current decision was made after consulting with the accused Murugha seer and the members of the mutt who run the business side of things. But a large number of devotees want Basavaprabhu seer to be put in charge of the cash-rich mutt as the interim pontiff.
Basavaprabhu Sri's supporters say that he will bring everyone along and could also take the lead to make sure that everyone gets along.
At the same time, the accused Lingayat seer gave retired judge S.B. Vastramatha to make decisions about how the mutt runs the SJM Vidya Peetha, which is a school.
The accused Lingayat seer is currently in judicial custody, and because new cases have been filed against him under the POCSO law, the process of choosing a new pontiff for Chitradurga mutt has begun.
The High Court was also keeping an eye on how things were going with mutt. Sources said there was a fight over who should be the new seer. One group wants the accused seer's wishes to be followed by appointing a new pontiff, while another group wants the accused seer to be kicked out of the mutt.
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