Contempt of court: Hanumantha Kamath senteced to 90 days jail.

Contempt of court: Hanumantha Kamath senteced to 90 days jail.

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, November 28, 2024: A recent judgment of the 1st addnl civil judge and FCJM Sri Ramlingappa delivered on the 23rd November in Misc.25/2018  brings to the logical end in the case OS1128/2014 and the court has found that the respondent Sri Hanumant Kamath s/0 Devadas Kamath G resident of Sevanjali Charitable Trust, Jodumath road, Mangalore having intentionally violated the order of the court in IA no.2 filed in the above case. The above case was filed by 1. Vithoba Rukma Bai devara Bhandaram as represented by 2. Sri Varadraya Prabhu, its administrative trustee.

Though the case prima facie appears to be a civil suit between the two parties, an examination on depth leads to a variety of factors affecting the community. The temple sits on a prime piece of land of about 51 cents situated in the heart of city on the V T Road the street on which the temple is situated and named after it. The story goes back to attempts to seize the control of the temple and its assets by a number of actions starting from illegalities to bizarre incidents! The strangest of them was breaking open of the locker with the temple jewelry which was at the Canara Bank, car street branch, Mangalore based on a letter purportedly signed by the petitioner obviously a forgery. But, the most bizarre part of the same communication was that it was signed by a person who had died years back! He miraculously resurrected to sign the communication at the bank and them went back to the place his eternal rest!

In another case which has come to its logical end recently relating to the Vithoba Temple of Mangalore. One of the famous temples of Mangalore though it is privately owned was founded by one Laxman Prabhu alias Narayana Teertha Sanyasi who had executed a trust deed in 1923 to establish a temple by transferring property to a Vithoba Rukma Bai devara bhandaram along with another person Maroli Lakshman Kamath who were the sole hereditary trustees. The temple had about 51 cents of land with buildings etc. Sri M.Varadarya Prabhu had been the managing trustee of this temple since 1983. Later on two others were co-opted as Hungami trustees, these were to be ostensibly to help the hereditary trustees but without any decision making rights which were to be taken by the managing trustee. These conspired and got the managing trustee removed and he sought legal remedies for it. While the suit was pending another trustee, one Namdev Shenoy was inducted in 2010.  Later on another trustee called Hanumant Kamath was also co-opted- all without the knowledge and consent of the Managing trustee who had been forcibly ousted from the premises of the temple belonging to his family. He instituted a civil suit for restraining these allegedly co-opted trustees from taking over the temple.

After taking over the temple forcibly the coterie tried to take over the jewelry belonging to the deity. The keys of the locker were in the possession of the managing trustee Varadaraya Prabhu  the locker being in his name and the rental was being duly debited from his account at the Canara Bank, Car street branch, Mangalore where the locker was in use. Coming to know of this conspiracy he had specifically instructed the bank that the key of the locker was with him and unless he came the locker should not be opened. But, despite of that the bank allowed the locker to be broken open and the valuables inside were taken out by a number of people which included the citizen activist Hanumant Kamath and the accused no 1 of the Vinayak Baliga sensational murder case Naresh Shenoy. The whole incident was videographed but a copy was not furnished to the managing trustee when he asked for it. However, he had lodged a complaint for deficiency of service against the bank at the Consumers Disputes Redressal forum and obtained the videos of breaking open of the locker to the complainant. Since the police had refused to register a case and had filed a B report, using them as evidence he filed a private case at the court of II nd additional CJM at Mangalore who directed the police to investigate the case and an FIR was filed in 2014 thirteen years after the crime was committed! The story of this crime needs more elaboration because it shows how the officials of a nationalized bank connived with this mafia to break open a locker and remove valuable objects based on forged documents. It was done supposedly to hold a week long bhajan called as ahoratri saptaha. This however was set aside by the court and he was restrained from holding any ahoratri bajana saptaha in the temple or from collecting any monies from the public for the said purpose or any other purpose in the name of Vittoba Rukmai Bajana samithi or in the name of the temple.

One of the obviously forged documents was the letter supposedly given by the three trustees to the bank on 8-8-2001 in which the managing trustee and two other trustees had authorized the bank to break open the locker. Nothing strange about it except that one of the signatories of that letter Maroli Lakshman Kamath had left for his heavenly abode on the first of October, 1998 and had come down to earth specifically on this date to the bank to sign the document! Due to the influence of the parties concerned this blatant case of forgery, theft, impersonation and cheating was not registered by police and the managing trustee had to approach the court for the registration of the FIR and further action. In the list of accused in this case there are seventeen people including six employees of the bank and the jeweler who had checked the items. The said trial has been stayed by the high court of Karnataka since the bank had argued that the case was not maintainable as the trustees of the temple trust have been changed. Whatever the arguments of the bank may be the question arises as to why they were overanxious to break open a locker when the client who had the key specifically instructed them not to do it. This too when they knew there was some litigation going on and the rules state that a locker can be broken open only when the court orders for it or the one who has rented it requests for it? It is obvious that vested interests have been at work behind the scenes to do this illegal job. Now that the court has ruled that the managing trustee Varadarya Prabhu is the sole one and others are restrained from asserting as trustees we have to see how the bank will respond to it.