Mangaluru: A senior leader of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat was questioned on Monday by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Karnataka police. He was grilled for over two hours in connection with the mysterious death of a close relative of a woman who has brought a sexual assault case against Raghaveshwara Bharati the head pontiff of the influential Ramachandrapura Mutt in Karnataka.

Shyamprasad Shastri, the brother-in-law of a 47-year-old former singer at the Ramachandrapura Mutt who has filed a sexual assault case against Raghaveshwara Bharati, allegedly committed suicide at his residence in the Kedila village near Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district two months ago.

He committed suicide three days after the singer and her husband were arrested for allegedly threatening other singers with a singing troupe of the Ramachandrapura Mutt.

On Monday, the CID police called Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat for questioning after call details of the dead man revealed that Bhat was one of the persons who spoke with Shastri on the day of his suicide.

Sources in the CID, confirmed that Bhat had accepted the fact that he had spoken several times to Shastri but he denied any role in the death. Bhat has told the police that Shastri was a friend.

The CID police in Karnataka are also investigating a series of allegations and counter allegations involving the chief seer of the Ramachandrapura Mutt and his associates.

The daughter of a 47-year-old singer formerly associated with the Mutt has filed a police complaint accusing the head pontiff Raghaveshwara Bharati of sexually assaulting the singer on several occasions while she was associated with the Mutt. Besides, the supporters of the pontiff have filed complaints against the singer and her family accusing them of extortion and blackmail apart from threatening singers attached to the Mutt.