Seers meet as Vijayendra gets bail

Press Trust of India
Chennai/Kancheepuram, February 10|21:45 IST

Three months after a dramatic police swoop separated them, the two Shankaracharyas of Kancheepuram met briefly on Thursday as the junior seer won conditional bail after being in jail for a month in a murder case.

Shankaracharyas Jayendra Saraswati and Vijayendra Saraswati spoke to one another at a Kancheepuram court, for the first time since November 10 when the senior seer was arrested at Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh.

As they were talking in low voices in the court of judicial magistrate G Uthamraj, a lawyer armed with a camera phone took their picture, only to be reprimanded by the judge.

It was the Madras High Court that granted the bail to junior Shankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswati when he himself was at Kancheepuram to receive along with his senior and other accused charges in the case related to the 2004 murder of temple official A Sankararaman.

But lawyers said the charge sheet of some 1,800 pages was not ready yet and would be given out only on February 24.

Judge M Thanickachalam of the Madras High Court awarded the bail to Vijayendra Saraswati, but told him not to leave Chennai and to report once a week to the Thousand Lights police station in the heart of the city.

He was also asked to submit an affidavit promising not to tamper with evidence police say they have gathered against him in connection with the September 3, 2004 murder of A Sankararaman in Kancheepuram town.

Vijayendra Saraswati, who is the next in line after senior Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati, will also have to surrender his passport to police and furnish a personal bond of Rs 50,000 with two sureties of a like amount.

Court officials said the junior pontiff was likely to be released from the Chennai central prison on Friday.

Vijayendra Saraswati was arrested on January 10, the day his senior was granted bail in the same case.

The pontiffs, who have millions of devotees, have denied all charges against them although the senior seer had admitted that he was very much bothered by the allegations levelled by Sankararaman.

Both are prime accused in the murder of Sankararaman, a devotee of the Kancheepuram monastery who bitterly protested against Jayendra Saraswati after accusing him of wrongdoings and was done to death in a temple on September 3.

Jayendra Saraswati later left for Kalavai, where he is now based, while his junior returned to the Chennai prison.

A total of 24 people have been listed in the case. It also includes Ravi Subramaniam, a contractor who has become an approver, and Raghu, the younger brother of the junior Shankaracharya.

On January 27, a sessions court in Chengalpattu near Chennai had rejected Vijayendra Saraswati's bail plea. His lawyers then moved the high court February 1.

Additional public prosecutor KS Sampath said the copies of the chargesheet were not given to the accused on Thursday due to 'administrative reasons'. "It is for the court to decide whether the copies of the chargesheet will be given to them on February 24."

He said Ravi Subramaniam, who had turned approver in the case, has been cited as prosecution witness and therefore, did not appear before the court on Thursday.

Earlier, as soon as Jayendra Saraswati entered the court hall at 12.05 pm, he stood close to the bench clerk while all the others were lined up. The junior seer Vijayendra Saraswati stood behind the senior seer and both of them were seen talking to each other.

Vijayendra Saraswati and his brother Raghu touched the feet of Jayendra to seek his blessings.

Later, at about 12.45 pm, all the accused, including the four persons now out on bail (Jayendra Saraswati, Vijayendra Saraswati, Arumugham and Senthilkumar) left the court.

The court also allowed the advocates of Sundaresa Iyer and Raghu to meet them.