The Hindu : Front Page : Kanchi Acharya jailed

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Saturday, Nov 13, 2004

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Front Page

Kanchi Acharya jailed

By Our Tamil Nadu Bureau

The Kanchi Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, being produced at the Kancheepuram Judicial Magistrate Court, in the early hours of Friday. — Photo: S.R. Raghunathan

KANCHEEPURAM, NOV. 12. The Sankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, who was arrested last night on charges of "abetting" the murder of Sankararaman, manager of the Sri Varadarajaswamy Temple, was today remanded to 15 days judicial custody by the Kancheepuram Judicial Magistrate-I. He was immediately taken to the Vellore Central Prison and lodged there.

The Madras High Court has posted for tomorrow the bail petition of the Acharya in which he has stated that he is "totally innocent" of the charges of murder, suppression of evidence and criminal conspiracy filed against him. The Public Prosecutor, K. Duraiswamy, told the court that there was "incriminating evidence" against the Kanchi mutt head. Money from the mutt account was disbursed to the accused. Completed telephone calls made from a mobile phone "used exclusively" by the mutt head to several of the accused both before and after the murder pointed to his involvement in the case. Also, a letter addressed to Sri Jayendra Saraswathi by Sankararaman was found in the possession of the accused, the prosecutor argued.

The arrest drama began around 6-25 p.m. on Thursday when a four-member Tamil Nadu police team led by the Additional Director-General of Police, K.V.S. Murthy, left by a helicopter to Mahbubnagar, about 90 km from Hyderabad, where the swami was staying. A couple of hours later, another seven-member armed police team flew to Hyderabad in a State-owned Cessna aircraft.

Mr. Murthy and his team took Sri Jayendra Saraswathi into custody at Mahbubnagar at 10 p.m., from where he was taken by road to the Hyderabad airport. The team, along with the Acharya, boarded the special flight to Chennai.

"Am I Veerappan?"

When the special plane landed in Chennai around 2-30 a.m. on Friday, there was some confusion as the Acharya refused to get into the police vehicle. "Am I Veerappan to be taken in a police vehicle," he asked the police officials. After the intervention of some top officials, he agreed to board a Tata Sumo vehicle to Kancheepuram.

The posse reached Kancheepuram around 4-30 a.m. and the Acharya was allowed to take rest on the premises of the All-Women Police Station, behind the office of the Superintendent of Police, till the remand report was prepared by the police.

The Superintendent of Police, Prem Kumar, the investigating officer of the case, told mediapersons: "We have strong evidence about the involvement of Sri Jayendra Saraswathi in Sankararaman's murder. There has been animosity between the two for the past four years and further investigation is on to corroborate the evidence collected on the involvement of the Kanchi Acharya."

The decision to arrest the Acharya was taken after two of the 14 persons arrested in the case indicated his "direct involvement." During investigation, police found that an associate of the mutt head had received information about the murder on September 3 over cell phone immediately after the incident took place.

Subsequently, the calls received and made from that number, for about six months prior to the date of murder, were scrutinised. Further investigations led to the arrest of 14 persons, police said.

A. Sankararaman was reported to have had a long-standing face-off with the Sankaracharya. He filed a petition in the Madras High Court in 2001 seeking orders to keep the Acharya from going abroad on the ground that `sanyasins' were not supposed to cross the seas as per the Hindu custom. However, the Sankara Mutt later decided to drop the foreign tour programme.

Earlier, the Kancheepuram Judicial Magistrate turned down a plea for hospitalisation of the Acharya made on the grounds of his age and health. Another request to pass an order to enable him to continue with his "daily religious duties" at the Vellore Central Prison was also turned down by the Magistrate, who asked counsel to approach the court only if the jail authorities refused to provide him with the materials required to perform the daily rituals.

In the High Court, the Public Prosecutor opposed any special treatment for the Acharya, who wanted to be lodged in a place other than prison. The prosecution was given time till Saturday to file a detailed counter-affidavit on this issue.

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