Wife accuses Bangalore pastor of sexually exploiting minor girls

Bangalore: The wife of a 45-year-old pastor of a local church has lodged a police complaint accusing him of cheating and sexually exploiting young girls.

In the complaint, Priyalatha has accused her husband K Shantaraju of misappropriating church funds and sexually exploiting minor girls at Gangamanagudi area of the city. The pastor, however, has denied the charges.

Priyalatha also claimed that she had photographs to prove her allegations. She alleged that Shantaraju and some of his family members had often threatened and tried to use political clout to hush up cases of exploitation.

The woman said she had remained silent owing to this and also with the hope that her husband would reform one day.

However, the pastor, who had filed a divorce petition, dismissed the allegations as false and baseless. He claimed that the allegations were only a method deployed by his wife to gain hold of the church property.

Police said the complaint has been registered and the case was being probed. "We have to carefully investigate the case, as the couple had lodged earlier cases against each other and were fighting a divorce case. No arrests have been made so far," they said.