SC grants bail to seer, asks him not to visit mutt

Newindpress.com
Monday January 10 2005 11:20 IST
PTI

NEW DELHI: Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati on Monday got a major relief when the Supreme Court ordered his release on bail in the Sankararaman murder case.

However, the court has told him not to visit the mutt till the chargesheet is filed and the probe completed.

The Tamil Nadu police received a major setback when the apex court granted bail to the 70-year-old seer, saying: "We are of the opinion that prima facie a strong case has been made out for grant of bail."

The order was given by a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice R C Lahoti, Justice G P Mathur and Justice P P Maolekar.

Allowing the appeal filed by the seer challenging the Madras High Court order refusing him bail, Justice Mathur, who wrote the judgement on behalf of the Bench, said in a jam-packed court: "He will be relieved from prison after furnishing a bail bond and two sureties to the satisfaction of the trial court."

The Shankaracharya was arrested exactly two months back on the Diwali night at Karimnagar in Andhra Pradesh when he was performing a trikal puja. He was apprehended in connection with the murder of Sankararaman, a former mutt employee who was murdered in the famous Varadaraja Perumal temple complex in Kancheepuram on September 3 last year.

The legal relief for the Shankaracharya comes after various attempts by him to secure bail in the Madras High Court failed. He was also arrested in a case of assault of Radhakrishnan, earlier connected with the mutt, but has been granted bail.

Jayendra Saraswati, who has been in Vellore Central Jail for most of this period, except when he was in police custody, had strongly denied his involvement in the case.

Over 12 people, including the junior Shankaracharya, Vijayendra Sarasawti's brother Raghu, mutt manager Sundaresha Iyer, mutt accountant Vishwanathan, two other prime accused, Appu and contractor Ravi Subramaniam, are also in jail in connection with the murder case.

The court had on January 7 reserved orders on the bail application after arguments by Shankaracharya's counsel Fali S Nariman, who had challenged some of the prosecution theories, on which he was arrested in the murder of the temple official.

Before giving the undertaking that the seer would not visit the mutt till the investigation was completed by the Tamil Nadu police, Nariman with documentary proof, had made light of the changing theories of the prosecution regarding the seer's role in paying the hired goons for the killing of Sankararaman.

Prosecution counsel K T S Tulsi had opposed the bail application on various grounds and maintained that if the Shankaracharya was released, many mutt officials, who were witness in the case, may be pressurised.