Court issues warrant against Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat, summons to Raghaveshwara Bharati

Mangaluru, Oct 6: The additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) court has served warrant to RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat in connection with the suicide of Shyam Prasad Shastry of Kedila village in Puttur.

The court also has issued a summon to Ramachandrapura Mutt seer Raghaveshwara Bharati, and another warrant to Puttur Havyaka Valaya Bonantaya president Shiva Shankara Bhat, on Friday, and the hearing for the same will be held on October 31.

Last week, The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) filed a chargesheet against Ramachandrapura Mutt seer Raghaveshwara Bharati, RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat and Puttur Havyaka Valaya Bonantaya president Shiva Shankara Bhat in connection with a suicide that took place in 2014.

The trio has been charged under IPC Sections 306 (abettment to suicide) and 506 (criminal intimidation).

The victim Shyam Prasad Shastry is the brother-in-law of a singer, who alleged that seer Raghaveshwara Bharati had sexually abused her. Later, there were allegations that the singer and her husband had been blackmailing the seer, and hence the Honnavar police had arrested them. Following this, the trio allegedly issued Shastry threats. Following Shastry’s death, his wife Lakshmi had filed a police complaint in this connection.

Shastry had recorded the phone conversation and these had been handed over to the police. The case was initially probed by the police at Puttur Town station and later handed over to the CID.