The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : `Bid to frame up Acharya in other cases'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 05, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

`Bid to frame up Acharya in other cases'

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, DEC. 4. Speakers at a prayer meeting here today condemned the arrest of the Kanchi Acharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, in the Sankararaman murder case.

In the absence of any evidence against him in the murder case, efforts were being made to frame him up in other cases. The people must vote to power in the next elections in the State a party which upheld dharma and dharmic principles, they said.

At the meeting on "Media rumours vs. truth," organised by Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Chennapuri Baktha Jana Samajam at Chetput, the speakers lashed out at the media which, they said, remained silent on human rights violations against the Acharya and the treatment meted out to him, but raised a hue and cry when politicians were arrested in cases. The Press circulated "baseless and juicy" stories linking the Acharya, without considering the veracity of the information.

However, the people would not be carried away by such sensational stories. The speeches were interspersed with chanting of "Jaya Jaya Sankara, Hara Hara Sankara."

Ganesan's charge

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national secretary, L. Ganesan, said that when Sri Jayendra Saraswathi was brought to Chennai from Mahbubnagar in Andhra Pradesh on November 11, his information was that the Acharya was being flown here only for enquiry. The seer was arrested not for the murder "but for something else," he said.

The BJP State president, C. P. Radhakrishnan, said the "attack on the Kanchi Mutt" was not on an individual but an attack "on the attempts being made to protect the country's culture." The people should teach a fitting lesson to the rulers in the next elections.

R. Gandhi, senior advocate, said there was not even circumstantial evidence in the murder case against the Acharya. There was nothing to implicate him.

He said he had full confidence in the judiciary and was certain that justice would prevail.

Abdul Karim Parekh, a Muslim religious leader, said the matter was sub judice and the Press should not blow it out of proportion and make it sensational.

In a statement, Mr. Radhakrishnan warned the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) that if it thought that Hindus' patience was their weakness, it would be disappointed. They would teach the DPA a fitting lesson in future, he said in a statement here.

Questioning the DPA's contention that all were equal before law, Mr. Radhakrishnan said it was a normal practice to give some additional facilities to those who were in the higher echelons of society. The BJP was only demanding that Sri Jayendra Saraswathi be not treated like ordinary criminals and that he be given due respect taking into consideration that he was the head of a 2,500-year-old Mutt.

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