Pocso court grants bail to Vachanananda swami

Davanagere: Vachanananda Swami, the expelled pontiff of the Veerashaiva Lingayat Panchamasali Peetha in Harihar, received partial relief in the Pocso case after the Davanagere District Special Pocso Court granted him regular bail subject to certain conditions.

Judge Sriram Narayan Hegde passed the order on Monday.Earlier, on June 25, the Karnataka high court directed the seer to seek regular bail after cancelling his anticipatory bail in connection with the case. Following the order, Vachanananda Swami filed an application before the district special Pocso court on June 27. After hearing arguments from both sides, the court granted him regular bail on Monday.Statements of seven children were recorded against Vachanananda Swami.

He is accused of taking the children to a bathroom and bedroom and sexually harassing them. Advocate Ramesh Kalal appeared for the victims, while advocate SV Patil represented the seer. After hearing the matter, the special Pocso court had reserved its order on the bail plea on July 6.Earlier, the high court dealt a setback to Vachanananda Swami by cancelling the anticipatory bail granted to him in the case. Challenging the relief, the mother of one of the alleged victims had approached the high court, questioning how anticipatory bail had been granted even before the case was registered.

After examining the plea, the high court observed that granting anticipatory bail before the registration of the case was improper. A bench led by Justice M Nagaprasanna subsequently cancelled the anticipatory bail. However, the court granted the seer three weeks to apply for regular bail and allowed protection from arrest to continue during that period.