Chitradurga, Nov 16 (IANS): Rape accused Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru of the historical Murugha Mutt in Chitradurga was on Thursday released from the prison after 14 months.

He was arrested last year on charges of raping minor girls staying at the residential hostel run by the Murugha Mutt.

The accused influential Lingayat seer spent 14 months in the Chitradurga district prison. The Karnataka High Court on November 8 granted the conditional bail to him.

The seer is facing charges under the POCSO Act, IPC sections, Atrocity Act, Juvenile Justice Act and Religious Institutions (Prevention of Misuse) Act. He was arrested after a high drama on September 1, 2022 and has been in jail since then.

The Karnataka High Court granted conditional bail to the rape accused. The High Court Bench headed by Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar has restrained the accused seer from entering the premises of the mutt and also had directed him to surrender his passport to the court. He also was asked to provide two sureties.