Chamarajanagar: Immadi Mahadevaswamy, former junior pontiff of Salur Mutt, Hanur taluk in the district, has been granted conditional bail by the Karnataka High Court, in the infamous prasada poisoning case of Kichuguth Sulwadi Maramma Temple, that rocked the State in 2018.

Immadi Mahadevaswamy is the prime accused in the case. The co-accused are Manager of the Temple Madesha, his wife Ambika and former employee of the Temple Doddaiah . 

Rachaiah, the Judge of Single Judge Bench of the High Court granted bail to Mahadevaswamy, for a period of one year to avail medical treatment. The Swamiji was behind bars for a period of seven years, but was suffering from physical ailments. 

Previously, all the four accused in the case, had filed bail applications at Supreme Court, only to suffer a setback, as the Top Court had rejected their bail applications, citing sensitivity of the case.

The case: The tussle for power among the trustees of Kichuguth Sulwadi Maramma Temple Management, which was rich in revenue, led to the conspiracy, hatched by Mahadevaswamy in connivance with the co-accused in the case. All they wanted was to grab power by hook-or-crook and put the rival faction in the dock. The prasada distributed to devotees was spiked with poison on Dec. 19, 2018, that claimed 17 lives and left 123 people severely ill.

Assurances remain

The then Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, had assured to provide Government job to one member from each of the 17 deceased person’s family, along with providing two acres of land and medical facilities.

However, barring seven persons who got the job, 10 are still awaiting jobs. Except for compensation provided, no other assurances were fulfilled, rued a villager.