Kanchi junior seer defends Sankaracharya

PTI[ TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2004 11:17:43 PM ]

KANCHEEPURAM: In his first public comment on the arrest of his senior in a murder case, Kanchi junior Sankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswathi on Tuesday said he told the special police that Jayendra Saraswathi "would not have done this (conspiring to eliminate Sankararaman)".

"I told them that he (Jayendra Saraswathi) would not have done this," Vijayendra Saraswathi told reporters in his first ever interaction with media since the arrest of his senior on November 11 in the case. He was addressing the media in the mutt premises on his return from the special police headquarters, where he was quizzed for three hours.

Vijayendra Saraswathi also said he told the police, in response to a question, the senior seer had advised him not to visit him at Vellore prison. "They asked me about my plans to meet the acharya at the prison. I told them that I had informed him (Jayendra Saraswathi) about my plans to call on him and that I was asked not to come now. I will go to meet him when he permits me," he said.