Koppal mutt seer in sex scandal after video goes viral

KOPPAL: Protests erupted at Gangavathi in Koppal district on Thursday after a video purportedly showing Kalmatha mutt seer Kottureshwara in a compromising position with a woman went viral.
Devotees thronged the mutt demanding the ouster of the 56-year-old pontiff while some other followers said the allegations were false and it was an attempt to defame him.
Sources said the Lingayat mutt is 400 years old and Kottureshwara became the peethadhipathi (chief) in 1995.The video is suspected to have been shot by the seer's former driver, Mallaiah Herur, who told media he had been "procuring" women for the pontiff for a decade now. The woman seen in the video is said to have been brought to the mutt to cook for the seer in 2010.
Herur lodged a complaint with Gangavathi police on Thursday, accusing the seer of threatening to kill him following the surfacing of the video. He told TOI that he had no hand in the video. "I served him for the last 20 years, but swamiji is threatening me to kill me after the video went viral," he said.
Koppal town police sub-inspector Uday Ravi said no complaint had been lodged against the seer following charges of sexual harassment, but Herur had filed a complaint of threat which had been registered. Ashok, trustee member of the mutt, said a decision had been taken to remove the pontiff.
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