What If He's Innocent?

The Shankaracharya has been sent to the gallows even before a trial begins Updates

by PREM SHANKAR JHA

Ever since the Chennai police arrested Swami Jayendra Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of the Kanchipuram math, on the night of Diwali, I have been filled with a sense of foreboding that refuses to go away. The source is the following: what if, after having accused him of murder, of causing the disappearance of evidence, giving false information to screen the offender and criminal conspiracy, then arresting him in the middle of the night, putting him in jail with common criminals, proclaiming his guilt to the entire Indian media in stentorian tones that brook no possibility of error, and adamantly resisting the grant of bail.

..what if, after all this, the Tamil Nadu police are unable to prove anything against him and have to let him go? What will this do to a political system that is poised so precariously on the knife edge of religious bigotry and intolerance? How will it affect the very concept of secularism, which came under such sustained battering during the six years of BJP/NDA rule? And most important, what will it do to hundreds of millions of ordinary Hindus, to whom their religion is their unfailing crutch in times of adversity?

My fears are not without foundation, for the rate of conviction in criminal cases in this country is one per cent. The police know this. The judges know this. That is one reason why, with unfailing regularity, the former have taken to trying and condemning those whom they apprehend before the bar of public opinion instead of a court of law. They do this by blazoning their charges across the front pages of the tabloids before they have gathered enough proof to convince even the lowliest magistrate with pretensions to independence, and obtaining remand after remand to keep the accused in jail for the maximum length of time permitted by law.

In the end, it no longer matters whether the case gets proved in a court of law. The accused person's name is tarnished beyond repair; his business and his status in society destroyed; his life torn to bits; and very often his health permanently impaired. Punishment has been meted out and the police, along with their complaisant magistrates, have been prosecutor, judge and jury.

Over the years, some of the most illustrious people in India have become victims of this pernicious practice. Among the early ones was V. Krishnamurthy, former chairman of Bharat Heavy Electricals and secretary to the ministry of heavy industry—perhaps the best technologist-manager the public sector ever produced. Two years ago, it was Shankar Sharma, then the head of the fastest growing brokerage firm in Mumbai, who had made the mistake of putting in seed capital for the e-magazine, Tehelka. These and countless thousands of others have been arrested first, and kept in prison while the police has struggled to make a case against them, eventually to no avail.

Although the 'investigation' against the Shankaracharya is still in its early stages, there are disturbing signs that it could very easily go the same way. All that the police seem to have against him for the murder of A. Sankararaman, manager of one of the temples at Kanchipuram, is that the man had developed what was clearly an unhealthy obsession with denigrating, opposing, frustrating, and even threatening Swami Jayendra Saraswati. The police further claimed that some of the accused whom they had arrested had implicated him in their crime. A cell phone known to be used by the Shankaracharya also had a record of calls made to some of the accused both before and after Sankararaman's murder. Ten lakhs of rupees had been withdrawn by the Kanchi peetham and distributed to 'the accused'. Motive, means and modus operandi, all therefore seemed established. At first sight, therefore, one can hardly blame the Chennai high court for not having granted the Shankaracharya bail.

It is only subsequent events that have shown how tissue-thin this alleged chain of prima facie evidence actually was.Sankararaman, it turned out, had been harassing the Shankaracharya for forty years. In fact, he had gone so far that there was an open-and-shut case of harassment against him, but the Shankaracharya chose not to lodge it. That made the timing of his decision to eliminate him difficult to explain. The two key witnesses on whose word he was charged with complicity and arrested later claimed that they had been tortured into signing blank pieces of paper for the police. The account in the hdfc bank did not exist, and the prosecution amended its petition to name another bank in its place.

The actions of the police since November 24 also show that it is badly rattled. That is the most probable reason for its lodging a second, relatively minor accusation, of another functionary of the math and his family being attacked and beaten up. And as if that were not enough, the state government has transferred both the heads of the 29-member team that had been formed to pursue the case against the Shankaracharya. Does that not sound familiar?

While the case against Jayendra Saraswati is evaporating into smoke, evidence is accumulating of the way in which this has been turned into a political crusade to denigrate Brahminism by both the DMK and the AIDMK. This is the time bomb that I am staring at, petrified with fear as I write my column. To our politicians nothing is holy, but this is a Hindu country. Let no one ever forget that. If it turns out that the most revered icon of Hindu sanatana dharma has been shamed, humiliated, and persecuted without reasonable cause, we could see the beginning of a caste-cum-religious conflagration that may not be doused in our lifetimes.

Irony found in jailing of Indian holy leader

Author: Bal Ram Singh
Publication: India New England News

The most encouraging thing in this "tamasha" created by the arrest of the Shankaracharya in Tamil Nadu was the 70-year-old spiritual leader's clear instructions to his followers not to pursue his bail application to the Indian Supreme Court. I wish he had refused to move any bail application, even in the lower courts.

If ancient Indian philosophy as outlined in the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Gita has any validity - and if the Shankaracharya, who heads a monastic order in Kanchipuram, is an acharya in its true sense - then there is nothing to be anxious about with him being in jail.

The Shankaracharya must know how to deal with such an injustice that is meted to the general public on a routine basis in a country which got independence from foreign rule with a promise from Mahatma Gandhi to bring "Ram Rajya."

Gandhi, who spent quite a bit of his time in jail, said, "When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it - always."

Truth has remained the overriding guiding force throughout humanity, most particularly in India's ancient tradition. "Satyamev Jayate" (truth alone prevails) adorns the modern Indian emblem as a reminder of that heritage, and if Shankaracharya is true to his tradition, he would know the meaning of this phrase more than anyone else.

For the rest of us, this event should only serve as a reminder that the so-called democratic system of governance touted as the panacea to human sufferings and misery is a façade, a front created to confuse people so that they can be manipulated by people like George Bush and Jayalalitha.

The treatment of Shankaracharya in a land which has provided dignified shelter to spiritual figures persecuted elsewhere throughout its history (the latest being the Dalai Lama) is a matter of utter shame. It is ominous to Indian nation beyond ordinary imagination.

The issue is not the charges labeled against the spiritual leader. India's traditions have always accepted the sovereignty of the law of the land, and everyone, including spiritual gurus, has always had to abide by them. There is ample evidence of such a tradition in the ancient texts of India.

However, India also has a tradition of challenging injustice perpetrated by anyone, including the king. Parasuram, an ascetic and spiritually enlightened figure thousands of years ago, is a well-known example of someone who fought against atrocities committed by kings and defeated them in battles.

If the government has a case against Shankaracharya, it should pursue it to the fullest. But it did not have to humiliate him by orchestrating an arrest on Diwali day, throwing him in a jail cell that does not meet his ritual and dietary obligations, and drum up charges by the day and convenience to deny him bail at any cost.

Al Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are treated with more dignity and care than the Shankaracharya of Kanchi in a supposedly democratic India.

There is no other country in the whole world that provides more religious rights to its minorities than India. India's hallmark tradition of accepting all based on merits rather than prejudice is there for everyone to see - a Muslim as the president, a Sikh as the prime minister, and a Christian as the leader of the ruling Congress Party.

But, look what they have offered in return. One of the pillars of the majority Hindu faith has been dragged into prison falsely pronounced as a criminal. We have yet to hear from President Abdul Kalaam. It took a full two weeks before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh murmured that he has written to Jayalalitha, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, who arrested the Shankaracharya, to treat him with care.

We have heard nothing from Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the ruling party, even though rumors are rampant about her connection to this case through some deals with Jayalalitha.

There is no doubt in my mind that the charges against Shankaracharya, which are related to the murder of a temple official, were fabricated to meet some political and personal ends, as evidence presented so far seems to have no figment of truth.

Two of the star police witnesses still under custody have admitted in court to coercion. The state government attorney named as absconding a woman conspirator who turned up the next day with her attorneys to denounce police methods and charges and is actually a cancer patient who got help from the Kanchi mutt.

The meek public response is either the result of public trust and support in government's honesty and sincerity, as many communists and activist groups would like everyone to believe, or a total numbing shock.

Knowing public paranoia about police and politicians in India, it is not possible to accept communist interpretation of the public response.

I believe the reaction of shock will turn into a deep distrust in the system of governance in India as we know it today. This system has collapsed and needs an alternative.

How long will it take to see this reaction? Much earlier than the next election, and as soon as a genuine leader, an acharya - who practices his/her preaching with utmost sincerity - appears on the scene. The Shankaracharya, therefore, must remain in jail to show the practice of his preaching.

BJP MLA booked for ‘inflammatory speech’

Publication: Agencies

Two cases were registered by police yesterday against BJP Tamil Nadu unit secretary H Raja, MLA, on the charge of making an "inflammatory and provocative speech" at a public meeting organised in connection with Ganesh Chathurthy at Karaikudi on September 20 last.

Police said Raja had also been charged with "hurting and offending religious sentiments" through his speech. The cases have been registered by Sivaganga district police.

Reacting to the filing of the cases, Raja told reporters that he stood by whatever he had spoken at the meeting and accused the AIADMK government of being 'vindictive'.

"Registering the cases against me shows the vindictive nature of the ruling AIADMK's supremo Jayalalithaa. It is another solid example of vindictiveness," he said.

Asked why the cases had been registered after over two months, police said, "We have got orders from the Government to register the cases. We can't comment."

Raja has been publicly stating that the police had been told to look out for cases against him ever since he protested in the state assembly last month against the arrest of Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi.

Seer mentally torturted in police custody: NDA team

Author: PTI
Publication: The Hindu

Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi, who has been arrested in connection with the Sankararaman murder case, has complained to the NDA team that called on him of "mental and psychological torture" while in police custody and has denied making any confessional statement.

"Though I was not physically tortured, I was mentally and psychologically tortured during my police custody. The police officials induced me to speak over mobile to several persons, which I declined with folded hands," he was quoted as saying by a five member delegation of NDA MPs, which called on him at the Vellore Central Prison this afternoon.

The team members, Balbir Punj, Rasa Singh Rawat, Jayabehn Thakkar (all BJP), Chandrakant Khare (Shiv Sena), and B J Panda (Biju Janata Dal), told a press conference here today that the Sankaracharya described reports that he made a confessional statement to the police a "total lie". Punj, who led the team, said the Acharya was in good health. "Let God give wisdom to all. Let the truth come out," the Seer told them, he said.

He alleged that the police had unleashed a "reign of terror" in Kancheepuram and people were afraid of speaking even in a closed room.

He charged the police with raking up many cases to create evidence against the Seer in at least one case. "In the Sankara Mutt at Kancheepuram and in that town, people are terrified, and unable to speak as there is an atmosphere of fear," Punj said.

Punj alleged that even mutt officials were tortured by police, adding that under the present circumstances, no fair trial was possible in Tamil Nadu. The cases against the Seer should be transferred to some other state, he said.

During their visit to Kancheepuram, the team called on Vijayendra Saraswathi, the junior pontiff. He told them that normality should return to the mutt and the town soon and wanted Jayendra Saraswathi to come out of prison to take over the administration of the mutt, Punj said.

The team would be submitting its report to the NDA leadership which would decide the next course of action, he said.

Earlier after calling on Vijayendra Saraswathi, Punj told reporters that the team strongly believed that a fair trial was not possible in Tamil Nadu. "When the Best Bakery case was transferred from Gujarat to Maharashtra, why not this," he asked.

The Brahmin and the Hindu

Author: Sandhya Jain
Publication: The Pioneer

As Swami Jayendra Saraswati stoically braves the onslaught of secular oppression unleashed by an unholy alliance of Government and media, it is clear that his tormentors have no case, have failed hopelessly in their nation-wide fishing expedition, but are nonetheless determined to keep him incarcerated. Nothing the judiciary has done so far gives ground for hope, so Swamigal's devotees may well prepare for a long eclipse of justice.

There is no legitimate cause to believe that the Kanchi Peetham's lawyers are not up to the mark, as was initially feared when bail did not materialize on the first day, as it should have. The Matham's meticulously drafted public statement, which appeared in select newspapers on 7 December 2004, reflects the professional skill of those engaged in defending the Swami. We must, therefore, take it in the spirit that the scales are tilted against us.

The Hindu-hating media has noted with satisfaction that adherents of sannatan dharma lack the terrorizing talents of Abrahamic faiths, and we may concede this. We have tolerated blasphemies such as the Shankaracharya's "plans" to flee to Nepal, but we have not asked how the Snam Progetti employee who became a political embarrassment to Signora Sonia Gandhi successfully escaped from the capital in a most timely fashion.

Meanwhile, Brahmin-bashers have rushed to fish in troubled waters. It is being said that Ms. Jayalalithaa ordered the action against the Shankaracharya because she needed to shed her pro-Brahmin image and curry favour with the Dravidian masses. It is being insinuated that the Brahmin community is an ogre that has been sucking the blood of the Hindu people for centuries. As the attempt to de-link the Hindu community from the Brahmin preceptor who preserved Dharma through a thousand years of oppression instantly reminds one of the mischief of the British Raj, it is worth scrutinizing the language of its modern advocates.

The Aryan Invasion Theory, raison d'etre for the north-south divide, has been debunked internationally. Brahmin-bashing, however, is one of the corrosive legacies of the Raj that has not been challenged head-on. It is therefore instructive to ask if Brahmins truly monopolized all access to education in the pre-British era, and thus cornered all avenues of employment. What kind of access did non-Brahmin castes have to education in south India before the British liberated them (sic) from the stranglehold of Brahmin control?

Dharampal (The Beautiful Tree) has effectively debunked the myth that Dalits had no place in the indigenous system of education. Sir Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras, ordered a mammoth survey in June 1822, whereby the district collectors furnished the caste-wise division of students in four categories, viz., Brahmins, Vysyas (Vaishyas), Shoodras (Shudras) and other castes (broadly the modern scheduled castes). While the percentages of the different castes varied in each district, the results were revealing to the extent that they showed an impressive presence of the so-called lower castes in the school system.

Thus, in Vizagapatam, Brahmins and Vaishyas together accounted for 47% of the students, Shudras comprised 21% and the other castes (scheduled) were 20%; the remaining 12% were Muslims. In Tinnevelly, Brahmins were 21.8% of the total number of students, Shudras were 31.2% and other castes 38.4% (by no means a low figure). In South Arcot, Shudras and other castes together comprised more than 84% of the students!

In the realm of higher education as well, there were regional variations. Brahmins appear to have dominated in the Andhra and Tamil Nadu regions, but in the Malabar area, theology and law were Brahmin preserves, but astronomy and medicine were dominated by Shudras and other castes. Thus, of a total of 808 students in astronomy, only 78 were Brahmins, while 195 were Shudras and 510 belonged to the other castes (scheduled). In medicine, out of a total of 194 students, only 31 were Brahmins, 59 were Shudras and 100 belonged to the other castes. Even subjects like metaphysics and ethics that we generally associate with Brahmin supremacy, were dominated by the other castes (62) as opposed to merely 56 Brahmin students. It bears mentioning that this higher education was in the form of private tuition (or education at home), and to that extent also reflects the near equal economic power of the concerned groups.

As a concerned reader informed me, the 'Survey of Indigenous Education in the Province of Bombay (1820-1830)' showed that Brahmins were only 30% of the total students there. What is more, when William Adam surveyed Bengal and Bihar, he found that Brahmins and Kayasthas together comprised less than 40% of the total students, and that forty castes like Tanti, Teli, Napit, Sadgop, Tamli etc. were well represented in the student body. The Adam report mentions that in Burdwan district, while native schools had 674 students from the lowest thirty castes, the 13 missionary schools in the district together had only 86 students from those castes. Coming to teachers, Kayasthas triumphed with about 50% of the jobs and there were only six Chandal teachers; but Rajputs, Kshatriyas and Chattris (Khatris) together had only five teachers.

Even Dalit intellectuals have questioned what the British meant when they spoke of 'education' and 'learning'. Dr. D.R. Nagaraj, a leading Dalit leader of Karnataka, wrote that it was the British, particularly Lord Wellesley, who declared the Vedantic Hinduism of the Brahmins of Benares and Navadweep as "the standard Hinduism," because they realized that the vitality of the Hindu dharma of the lower castes was a threat to the empire. Fort William College, founded by Wellesley in 1800, played a major role in investing Vedantic learning with a prominence it probably hadn't had for centuries. In the process, the cultural heritage of the lower castes was successfully marginalized, and this remains an enduring legacy of colonialism.

Examining Dharampal's "Indian science and technology in the eighteenth century," Nagaraj observed that most of the native skills and technologies that perished as a result of British policies were those of the Dalit and artisan castes. This effectively debunks the fiction of Hindu-hating secularists that the so-called lower castes made no contribution to India's cultural heritage and needed deliverance from wily Brahmins.

Indeed, given the desperate manner in which the British vilified the Brahmin, it is worth examining what so annoyed them. As early as 1871-72, Sir John Campbell objected to Brahmins facilitating upward mobility: ".the Brahmans are always ready to receive all who will submit to them. The process of manufacturing Rajputs from ambitious aborigines (tribals) goes on before our eyes."

Sir Alfred Lyall was unhappy that ".more persons in India become every year Brahmanists than all the converts to all the other religions in India put together... these teachers address themselves to every one without distinction of caste or of creed; they preach to low-caste men and to the aboriginal tribes. in fact, they succeed largely in those ranks of the population which would lean towards Christianity and Mohammedanism if they were not drawn into Brahmanism." So much for the British public denunciation of the exclusion practiced by Brahmins!

Swami Jayendra Saraswati belonged to this league of Brahmin preceptor so hated by proselytizers. He even rebelled against Paramacharya Chandrashekharendra Saraswati in order to serve the Dalits. He became vulnerable to the present conspiracy because of the liberal access he permitted to himself.

Unparalleled Demonstration of Hindu Unity in New York

Author: Narain Kataria and Shree Sidhwani in New York

The sidewalks of the prestigious Fifth Avenue near Central Park, right in the heart of New York City, reverberated with the slogans: “Santon Ka Apmaan -- Nahin Sahenge, Nahin Sahenge”, “Hindu Persecution -- No More, No More”, “Enough is Enough”, and “Release our Shankaracharya -- Right Now, Right Now”.

Braving the cold and chilly weather, Hindus of North America, led by the tri-state Vishwa Hindu Parishad chapter and supported by thirty-eight Hindu organizations participated in a highly unusual protest demonstration in front of the Office of the Consulate General of India on November 30 to express their outrage and anguish at the insulting and humiliating manner of the arrest of a greatly respected and revered Hindu religious leader Shankaracharya Swami Jayendra Saraswati.

The massive and boisterous demonstration exhibited the underlying cultural and religious solidarity among various sects of Hindu Samaj. The coming together of more than three dozen Hindu organizations also demolished the myth and debunked the fallacious theory propounded by prophets of doom that Hindus cannot be united.

The Protest was attended and addressed by prominent physicians, college professors, and other heads of cultural and religious organizations. The atmosphere was charged and electrifying. The emotional outburst was seen to be believed. All the present community as well as religious leaders unequivocally condemned the illegal and shocking confinement of a Shankaracharya, one of the highest and the most revered seats of the Hindu Dharma. The sum and substance of speeches delivered on the occasion can be summarized as follows:

§ The manner in which the Tamil Nadu State police and the Public Prosecutor have been portraying the great and pious person of Shankaracharya’s exalted status, as a professional killer, smacks of a serious political partisanship between various anti-Hindu elements within the country.

§ The entire shameful exercise is an insidious attempt to denigrate and discredit the sterling name of Hindu Dharma through the defamation of one of its most revered heads.

§ Swami Jayendra Saraswatiji who is held in high esteem by one billion Hindus globally and occupies a position in the Hindu society that is somewhat similar to that of the Pope at Vatican is an apotheosis of proper religious conduct as enshrined in the Hindu scriptures. Hindus in America are deeply disturbed and shocked at the disrespectful manner in which this great Hindu Seer was summarily arrested and remanded to prison as if he was no more than a common criminal.

§ Hindus of America have this deep underlying concern that, with the setting of a precedent with one Shankaracharya, soon the other renowned and revered Hindu spiritual leaders such as the Heads of Shringeri, Puttapurthi and Swami Narayan Sanstha could also be similarly mistreated and insulted on unsubstantiated fictitious grounds. The State Government of Tamil Nadu and the Central Government of India should heed carefully the growing discontent and anger of the global Hindu community. Eight hundred million Hindus of India are slowly beginning to wake up to the realization that they too are entitled to the same rights and liberties within their own ancestral country, India… that are routinely accorded to the followers of other minority religions.

From now on, Hindus will no longer tolerate the mischievous and dangerous game of certain political groups designed to defame and demonize the Hindu Dharma. However painful and unfortunate the current chain of events may be, it has the potential of mobilizing and transforming the mighty Hindutva movement worldwide in an effort to stem any further attempts at harming and undermining the Hindu faith and interests. The following well-known Hindu community leaders addressed the gathering:

Gaurang Vaishnav, General Secretary of VHP of America; Raksh Pal Sood, Advisor to Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh; Rajesh Shukla and Arish Sahani of Overseas Friends of BJP; Devendra Singh Sawhney of Sikh Sangat of America; Dr. Uma Mysorekar, President of Hindu Temple Society of North America; Dr. Narinder Kukkar, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of Indians in America; Dr. A.V. Raghunath of Kanchi Kamkoti Seva Foundation; Br. Krishnamoorthy, Acharya Chinmaya Mission; Prof. Ved Chowdhary of Hindu International Council Against Defamation (HICAD); Ram Suchdev of Overseas Sindhu Sabha; Nagendra S. Rao, Founder President of Sanatana Dharma Pratishthapana Foundation; N. Lalchandani of Satya Narayan Temple, New York; Venkat Sarma of Malyali Hindu Mandalam; Bidyut Sarkar of International Federation of Bangladeshi Hindus and Friends; Dr. Sudhakar Reddy of OFBJP/American Telegu Association; Subhash Arora of Arya Samaj; Major Sher Bahadur Singh of International Hindi Association, New York and Rajendra P. Singh of U.P. Association of Mid-Atlantic (UPAMA).

A Simple Demand For Justice

Author: Satya Sarma
Publication: India-Forum.com

In an interview to rediff.com, Prosecutor for Tamil Nadu, KTS Tulsi said of those who show support for the Kanchi Sri Sankaracharya: “For them, a Brahmin is above the law.” Ignore for now the fallacy that a sanyasi is bound by varna – that is a question, I am unqualified to discuss. There is something else there that Mr. Tulsi got wrong. It is not that we claim our Dharmacharya to be above the law. It is just that the Law has sunk so low. By forsaking the solid ground of truth, the Law has slipped into a gutter where it lies unworthy of any respect or of even a second look.

After claiming to have “shocking and solid” evidence, the Law and its guardians have, time and time again, been proven outright liars. The testimony they claimed clinched the Acharya’s guilt turns out to be a litany of lies forced out under torture. They have failed to produce the purported key conspirators who link the Acharya to the crime. Not that we can believe any testimony they claim to elicit from witnesses in their custody anyway.

Mr. Tulsi himself has been caught in a lie. In open courts, Mr. Tulsi got up and said that a ‘deserted’ woman he implied was linked to the Acharya was involved in the murder, and had absconded with lakhs. This woman’s apprehension was essential to the investigation, said he.

That woman turned out to be one of the millions of the sick and destitute whom the Kanchi Sankaracharya has given help and solace to. And Mr. Tulsi turned out to be a slanderous liar.

Then, from the gutter, came the bizarre procession of new accusations, trumpeted by sensational headlines. There were cases from two years ago, and twelve years ago and twenty years ago. All from a band of lawmen who have not been able to sniff out a trail that is two months old! The Accusers promised skeletons would fall out of the Kanchi Acharya’s closet. Instead, it is the Prosecution that is parading out the ghouls.

So far, all that has been proven is that the law-enforcers are themselves liars, capable of unthinkable violence and cruelty. Frankly, they seem more likely murderers than the man they accuse. One of their witnesses came to court with a broken hand; the other described how his teeth were broken to extract false testimony.

It turns out the chief investigator has a long and documented history of such inhuman abuse. He’s even been convicted by a court of law. He disdains that court’s verdict against him. It was passed, he says, by only one biased judge, (neglecting to mention the more than eighty eye-witnesses that judge relied on). But he is quite happy submitting Sankaracharya before that very same court. And a verdict denying bail to an elderly person who has served people selflessly his entire life, that judgment could not possibly be biased, oh never!

The charges that SP Prem Kumar tortured people, intimidated witnesses and filed false cases – he claims these are scurrilous allegations raked up by supporters of the Acharya who want to derail the law. Oddly enough, the human rights magazine reporting his past record had lifted not a finger to help the Acharya. Also, they published their article on SP Prem Kumar the month before the Acharya’s surprising arrested. But why should facts get in the way of a confirmed liar like Prem Kumar?

The Chief Minister outdid them all. Having publicly pronounced the Sankaracharya guilty of murder, she gave those expected to be called as witnesses against him Five hundred thousand in currency. No doubt, this is an act of generosity never to be questioned, whereas if Sankaracharya’s organization gives a penniless woman some 5 or 10,000 rupees as charity, it is a certain sign of something illicit!

The CM’s tampering is so egregious that it eclipses the allegations by two other accused that the identification line-up was tainted, as the police openly coached witnesses.

A week or so ago, columnist S.Gurumurthy asked who was going to do the funeral for this case. It turns out the secular guardians of law are not above beating a dead horse. I asked in my last article, who are these people to judge a jagatguru? Well, now we have our answer. They are the ones with the whip hand. That is all.

They can haul anyone in, any time, for questioning. Should a journalist poke holes in their case (it’s hard not to), out comes the whip: be prepared for a grilling. If supporters should enter the mutt, out comes the whip: be prepared to be searched. If witnesses relate facts that contravene their theories, out comes the whip: they are threatened with prosecutions.

What is their reaction to anyone whose testimony indicates the Acharya’s innocence? Out with the whip! Srirangam Usha destroys their theory of misconduct with truth and the very next day we hear the police plan to arrest her on a two-year old case they never bothered to book her for in the first place! Mythili Raghavan destroys the fanciful fabrications of another accuser; lo and behold, the police tell the press they will press charges against her!

Today, the sole source of the Law’s authority is the use of force. For the Law and its guardians have conceded moral authority. The rulers of our land , who claim the Acharya is too dangerous to be given bail, persuade the courts that tainted politicians should be allowed to write the law of the land. If the people protest that the process is corrupted, the answer returns that only the corrupt can ask for an investigation into their corruption.This is how the Home Minister responded to concerned Tamil Nadu legislators.

To the guardians of law, the truth is not even an afterthought; it is irrelevant. They have lost all credibility, and we can no longer believe them.

And so, in desperation, what do they do? The same tainted policemen fabricate yet another confession. Yes, another confession that is denied flatly by the witness. This disputed ‘confession’ cannot be evidence, but they deliberately leak excerpts to selected members of the press. They do not bother to authenticate this purported confession. They do not bother to elucidate the context or the circumstances; they do not even care to disclose the entire sum of it. Nothing they disclosed would ever be stilted toward their version of events: we are to take Prem Kumar and Tulsi’s word for it! In a trial by the media, the accusers do not have to face the accused.

Excuse me, but when the Acharya himself- who for the past fifty years has been a fount of wisdom and compassion for millions- says he hasn’t confessed, and prolific liars say he has, it’s isn’t tough to choose who to believe!

Every fundamental principle of Justice has been violated when it comes to the Sankaracharya. And the violators have been the people deputed to render Justice through the Law.

The first and foremost principle of justice is the presumption of innocence. This is not a mere technicality in the law. It is a fundamental principle that has existed in every civilized human society from Hammurabi’s Babylon to the United States of America. Near Kanchipuram, in Madurai, our own ancestors have a story that teaches this principle.

Yet, from the very beginning, the Public Prosecutor of Tamil Nadu labeled the accused a criminal. In the very interview in which he accused supporters of flouting the Law, Tulsi contravened this essential principle of Justice. He publicly passed his verdict on the Sankaracharya: guilty, even before the charges were drafted! In a few days’ time, it was the Chief Minister’s turn. Before the police had bothered to complete their enquiries, she publicly declared the Acharya a murderer.

Finally, the High Court justice himself, before hearing a single witness or considering a shred of evidence, even before any date has been set for trial, announced in his public decision the judgment that there was reasonable evidence of Sankaracharya’s guilt! Without ever considering the merits of the case, he jumped to this conclusion.

In the case of any person, justice demands that the burden of proof of guilt should lie with the accuser. In the case of someone who has dedicated his life to service and charity, how much greater that burden should be! Is it just to pronounce our Dharmacharya guilty before he is even charged?

The second principle of justice is that the accused be given every opportunity to defend himself against his accusers. This, the Supreme Court of the Land has said, is so important, that bail should be the rule, denial the exception, because it holds that granted bail, a presumably innocent person is far better able to prepare his defense.

But the Acharya’s bail hearings have each dragged on for weeks. Bail has been denied, first on the flimsy charge that he might escape; then on the judgment that he was guilty before the charges were framed.

To prepare his defense, the accused must be given adequate access to counsel. Yet, the Sankaracharya was not given benefit of counsel on multiple occasions: not at the time of his arrest in Chennai, not before his remand hearing, not before his first bail application, and not during his interrogation.

To prepare his defense, the accused must be disclosed all the evidence against him. To prepare his defense, the accused must be able to question witnesses freely. How can this occur when the police are harassing any witness who might support his case? How can this occur when the Law is tampering with witnesses by buying those who are to testify for them and bullying those who would testify in favor of the accused?

Our demand, Mr. Tulsi, is a simple one: Justice!

We demand out Dharmacharya be presumed innocent. Stop smearing him with your lies and manipulations!

We demand that our Dharmacharya be given every opportunity to prepare his defense. Consent to bail for him, and ensure he has adequate assistance of counsel.

We demand you stop intimidating supporters, coaching witnesses, and manufacturing “evidence”. Stop cracking your whip at us because your lies have unraveled.

Or is it, Mr. Tulsi, that for you, a saffron-clad sanyasi is beneath Justice.

Every evidence brought forward of the Acharya’s guilt has crumbled before the world’s eyes. But the Prosecution presses on with blind fervor. Enough is enough!

Upon Sankaracharya’s arrest a month ago, a Tamil magazine proclaimed “Justice has died there.” Justice is the reason the Law exists. When Justice itself has died, why should the Law remain?

This was the principle that Kannagi invoked, when Pandiyaraaj – a ruler extolled for his fairness, executed her husband on false charges. The reputed Raaj that committed that one injustice burst into flames. This is a different era, in which ill-doers seem to flourish.

But there is a flame burning in the hearts of millions who watch this injustice continue. It is not the angry flame that burned down Madurai. It is a quiet, white-hot flame that burns away all impurity. This Raaj ignores it at its own peril.

Dalits Pray For Sankaracharya’s Release

The anti-Hindu lobby portrays the Kanchi Sankaracharya as anti-dalit with the motive of dividing the Hindu society.But the reality is otherwise.

The arrest has shocked the dalits of four hamlets in Nagapattinam District and are praying for their release. The 50 odd families in a street in Porayar are called 'Kattunayakans'. They are Scheduled tribes and work as scavengers. In 1992 they wanted to build an Amman (Devi) Temple in their locality. They wrote to the Sankaracharya for assistance. The seer immediately sent a delegation to the temple and the temple was built with his liberal assistance. Not only that, he presented a Kaliamman Idol to the temple.

Natesan, the Head of the Kattunayakans emotionally narrated his meeting with the seer."The Sankaracharya himself explained the right way of worshipping the deity. When some of the local people view us as untouchables he treated us with dignity. When I approached the Mutt for the second Kumbabhishekam (Consecration), the Swamigal sanctioned Rs.10000/- immediately. The temple is here only because of the Swamigal. We are really pained at the recent developments. We pray for the Swamigal's release."

In the nearby Bhudanoor village, the 200 dalit families tell a similar story."The Sankaracharya has lent his helping hand to construct a temple and has donated the idol."

The 50- odd Dalit families of Rajivpuram near Porayar also have similar sentiments. Construction of 'salai Kaliamman temple 'is under way in this locality." The Sankarachatrya has donated money for constructing a temple and has promised to donate the Idol for worship".Thangaiah, a native of Rajivpuram said that the seer was kind enough to visit the temple in June last year when they approached the Mutt for help.

The arrest of the Swamigal has shocked all the members of Rajivpuram. "Swamigal should soon be released" he said. The 105 Dalit families in Irulneekki village near Thiruthuraipoondi in Nagai District where Swamigal was born are agitated.

"The media people are writing all types of things about the Swamigal. The Seer would not have committed the crime and soon he would come out clean." Said Arumugam a villager.

'The Chandrasekhra Rural Development Trust' formed by Jayendra Sraswathi has completed several development projects in Iruklneekki village, The trust has constructed 40 group houses for the dalits. With the co-operation of HUDCO, NABARD and the Tamil Nadu government, a pilot project was carried out in 2001 to make Iruklneekki a model village. The trust has constructed a well- equipped health center in the village which is now functioning with two doctors., five para medical staff and a laboratory technical assistant.

Gurumurthy questioned by special police team

Author: PTI
Publication: The Hindu

Columnist and auditor S. Gurumurthy was today questioned by the special police team investigating the Sankararaman murder case in connection with a series of articles he had written in an English daily on the case.

Emerging from the special team's headquarters here, he told reporters that the police were "clearly disturbed over my articles" and said his summoning was a "clear warning" to all journalists not to write anything against the police.

Gurumurthy appeared before the police responding to the summons issued by Chief Investigating Officer in the case ADSP S.P. Sakthivel and the enquiry lasted nearly two hours.

The writer said that in the summons police had stated that the four articles written by him in the Indian Express gave room to think that he had information to impart to the police on the murder of Sankararaman, in connection with which Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi has been arrested.

Stating that he was not a witness but only a commentator, Gurumurthy said "obviously, the police are disturbed over my articles. They read it out line by line and asked for the source of those lines."

I was hung upside down, stripped, placed on ice: Seer case accused

Publication: The Indian Express

“Policemen probing Sankararaman murder case threatened to kill me if I did not confess to the crime,” said Chinna alias Rajnikanth, one of the prime accused in the murder case. The threat was not once, but twice, he added.

While appearing before the Kancheepuram Judicial Magistrate G Uthamaraj for remand extension, Chinna's counsel Darwin Wisdom submitted a petition narrating the police excess meted out to his client.

In the petition, Chinna said on November 1, the Kanchi policemen came to his residence in GKM Colony in Villivakkam, Chennai, and took him in a police van to a bungalow in Uthandi on the East Coast Road.

“In the bungalow, the police beat me black and blue by hanging me upside down. They also pricked me using needles. Later, they placed huge ice bars and tortured me. After stripping me completely, they pushed me inside a tub full of water and made to gasp for breath,” Chinna said.

He also said that the police kicked him on his mouth forcing him to confess to the crime. "They also threatened to intimidate my parents," he alleged.

During his 10-day stay in the bungalow and a few other places till November 10, the police provided him food only twice a day, he lamented.

On November 10 when he was produced before the very court, the police sought permission for a five-day custody and after the same was granted, the third-degree treatment continued, he further alleged.

During the custody, the police intimidated him saying that if he were to reveal the treatment meted out to him, they would seek two more days and during that period, he would be shot to death on the pretext that he tried to escape from police custody, Chinna stated in the petition.

“Fearing this threat, I did not reveal all these incidents when I was produced before the court on November 11,” Chinna, a medical dropout, said adding that now he was able to do so after his lawyers explained to him that the police “cannot seek any more time for interrogation.”

Because of the continued police excess, though he wanted to make a detailed submission he was not in a position to do that, Chinna said adding he was submitting the petition now. He also prayed that the court considered the same while rendering justice.

In addition to the above petition, Chinna's counsel Darwin Wisdom filed another one highlighting the misdemeanour of the Chennai Central Prison authorities.

Meanwhile, the Magistrate extended the judicial remand of Kathiravan, Chinna and Ambi till December 22.

Jayendrar is not being given proper medications: complaint to President

Publication: Dinamani (Tamil)
Date: December 6, 2004

For the past 3 days, Sri Jayendrar has not been given his medications. There are fears that he may be killed in Velur prison itself. Therefore, the President should intervene to protect his life requests Supreme Court Senior Advocate MN Krishnamani. In a telegram to the President.

He sent it on Sunday evening with the permission of the Sankara Matam. [Sri] Jayendrar is not being treated well in prison. He is not being given his medications properly. He has glaucoma and Diabetes. Dr. Badhrinath, an eminent ophthalmologist has prescribed him medications for glaucoma. Those medications are not being given.

His private physician, Dr. Ramachandran is not being allowed to take his Blood Pressure and Blood Sugar monitors to the prison. Dr. Ramachandran says Sri Jayendrar is very weak.

"Several devotees have conveyed to me on the telephone their fears that Sri Jayendrar may be given drugs or slow-acting poison, [says the Supreme Court Advocate]. SP Premkumar, who is investigating the case compelled Sri Jayendrar to drink milk he brought to him. It is feared he may have mixed drugs in it.

For the past two days, his lawyer Krishnaswamy has not been allowed to meet him.

For the past 25 years, Sri Jayendrar is a diabetic. As such, if he is given sedatives or denied medications, he is likely to go into a coma.

[It is feared that] Since they don't have evidence to finish this case, there is a concerted effort to cause his health to deteriorate. Ultimately, this may be falsely presented as if he committed suicide.

Prem Kumar is a dangerous man. He has been convicted in two cases before this. In a previous case, the High Court said he tortured a person in his custody to give false evidence. It is notable that the Madras High Court has ordered an investigation into this matter.

The President should intervene immediately to ensure Sri Jayendrar's safety."

Hanged Before Hearing

The Outlook report on the Shankaracharya illustrates its double standards

BALBIR K. PUNJ

Swami and Fiends, along with the inset How to Cash In (Outlook, Nov 29), on the Shankaracharya affair, was a typical trial by the media. It was also in line with the general editorial policy of Outlook to 'cash in' on any opportunity to nail those who believe in the spiritual traditions of this ancient land. Facts, as usual, were either twisted or cooked up to hit predetermined targets (read Hindutva forces, BJP/RSS). The report says, "This is not the first time Jayendra Saraswati seems to have organised an attack through goons".

Outlook pronounced him guilty even before the trial! The report is based on half-truths and rumours. Innuendoes and baseless allegations levelled by known enemies of the math and the police have been produced with suitable exaggerations as part of a 'journalistic investigation'.

"

Over the years, muck has been accumulating behind the math walls. Hard to believe, but scandalous stories of sleaze, debauchery, greed and sex are doing the rounds," says the report, without quoting a single authentic source. Outlook further alleges, "Accretion of property necessitated contacts with rowdy elements, apparently leading to a Mumbai underworld-style killing". Again a serious allegation without any evidence.

While reporting any police action, Outlook and the 'secular media' are generally wary of the establishment version. Remember the outcry over the Ansal Plaza shootout in Delhi when the police had killed a couple of terrorists? Or how Ishrat Jahan was portrayed as an innocent college girl after she was killed with her armed Islamist comrades outside Ahmedabad by the Gujarat police? In each case, the 'secularists' disbelieved the authorities, picked holes in the official version and declared the terrorists innocent.

In contrast, the Outlook story on the seer is based entirely on the prosecution case. The magazine has happily swallowed the Tamil Nadu government's version hook, line and sinker. Suddenly, the trigger-happy policemen who are devil incarnates while dealing with isi agents have turned into paragons of virtue.

What was the need for a midnight swoop reminiscent of a similar action against the DMK top brass? The argument that the Shankaracharya was planning to escape to Nepal in a helicopter is specious. Wouldn't a chopper have to take several refuels on way to Nepal from Andhra Pradesh? Anyway, India has an extradition treaty with the Himalayan kingdom. Have the police identified the person or company sponsoring his chopper flight? Understandably, no inconvenient questions have been asked.

The prison rules in Tihar jail are suitably changed to accommodate the dietary requirements (including timings) for Muslim convicts during Ramzan. The Shankaracharya is merely an accused so far (in fact, innocent till proven guilty). But no such consideration was shown to him. And Outlook is conveniently silent on this aspect. Why?

The 'secularists' vie with each other to speak for the 'human rights' of Naxals, terrorists of various hues and Bangladeshi infiltrators. They quote the fine print of law to bail them out of tight situations. Here, a centuries-old, respected institution has been targeted. In the process, a 70-year-old diabetic seer (who is revered by millions) has been victimised for political ends. No questions are being asked. Why? Because all this has the obvious approval of the 'secularists'. But any move to oppose this farce and injustice is termed by Outlook as an effort by the BJP/RSS 'to cash in'. Nothing can be more perverse than this.

The inset on 'cashing in' was in utter bad taste. It's sordid to reduce the event to merely caste, communal or political equations.

And, it is presumptuous to say that only Brahmins are shaken by the arrest; it has hurt all, minus the 'secularists' who are a creed (a rootless one) by themselves.

Much to Outlook's disappointment, former president R. Venkataraman has condemned the treatment meted out to the seer. A host of religious and political leaders, across party, caste and ideological lines—including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, ex-PM Chandra Shekhar, George Fernandes and Mulayam Singh Yadav—have expressed their anguish over the framing of the seer.

Millions of Shankaracharya followers are hurt but they suffer in silence. If the Shahi Imam (against whom two dozen unexecuted warrants are pending) were arrested, his followers would have been on the warpath. Is having peaceful followers a disqualification? This is as presumptuous as saying the RSS is Brahmin-dominated. The RSS is less Brahmin-dominated than the ias, the Marxist jnu, the 'secular' media or the Congress. It's vile to reduce Hindus to one caste. In fact, many of those working against Hindu interests with jehadi vehemence—from E.M.S. Namboodiripad to Nehru—have been Brahmins. But again, to use Brahmins as a disparaging epithet is to show disrespect towards India's spiritual and intellectual traditions.

I don't know of any 'great Hindu opportunity' in this sordid episode. From the disturbing demographic changes revealed in the last census to the humiliation heaped on the Shankaracharya, many 'great Hindu ordeals' are in the making. These can never be salubrious to the health of the pluralist/secular structure of India. Even M. Karunanidhi, who had earlier welcomed the Shankaracharya's arrest and proposed that the state take over the math property, now senses a conspiracy by Jayalalitha against the seer. It's clear that to notch up space in 'secular' politics, Jayalalitha has decided to humiliate the seer, with 'secularists' like Outlook happily acting as cheer boys on the sides.

A price to serve the Hindu cause

Author: Shyam Khosla
Publication: Organiser

Anti-Hindu forces are determined to pursue their divisive policies and actions. They are at work all the time spreading canards about Hindu nationalism and making all out efforts, each in its own way, to weaken the Hindu society. Their aim is political domination and personal glorification, even if national unity and glory of India is the cost. V.P. Singh’s dream of emerging as the Messiah of the backward communities led to Mandalisation of the society. It divided the society deep down the middle as no other action of concept did. The jinn unleashed by him under the garb of social justice played havoc with social harmony and caused social strife that refuses to die down. The distorted version of secularism, propounded and practiced by the Congress, communists and other ‘secularists’, is yet another divisive instrument that marginalised Hindus and filled them with anger over being treated as second-class citizens in their own land. Whether it was the Shah Bano case or the Godhra carnage and the communal strife that broke out in its wake or Islamic terrorism, the anti-Hindu contours of ‘secularism’ were manifest. The kid gloves with which the ‘secularists’ dealt with terrorism in J&K and in other parts of the country and the Congress party’s secret understanding—“votes for lifting the ban on PWG”—with communist terrorism in Andhra Pradesh are some of the deep causes of concern for the nationalists.

The latest in the series of attacks on Hindu icons is the arrest of Sri Jayendra Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, for “conspiring to kill a former employee”, and the shabby treatment meted out to the Swami by the Tamil Nadu police. Besides being a spiritual and religious leader that is revered by millions and millions of Hindus across the country and outside, he is a holy man with traditional values and modern ideas. He was the one who reached out to the depressed and deprived sections of the society. When there was resistance to entry of Harijans in temples, he took idols to Harijan bastis saying if they could not go to the Lord, He will come to them. The number of hospitals he built for the poor and the needy, the number of schools he opened for the vast multitude of under-privileged children, the countless dilapidated temples he restored, all stand testimony to his vision and dedication to the cause of the society and dharma. He was the bedrock of Hindu resistance against the Dravidian movement launched by separatists. He was the voice of Hindus after the mass conversion of Harijans to Islam in Meenakshipuram and the one who addressed the concerns of the Harijans. He played a major role in creating public opinion against fraudulent conversions by missionaries.

He had to pay the price for his services to the Hindu causes. Anti-Hindu elements ganged up to malign the Swami to undermine his stature as a Hindu spiritual leader. That the Swami has been falsely implicated in a murder case is evident from the evidence given by the two accused in the case that told the court that they had been tortured while in police custody to falsely implicate the Acharya. Jayalalithaa, the egoist, is obviously behind the deep-rooted conspiracy to destroy the immense respect and popularity the seer enjoys. However, certain elements in the police department are so rabidly anti-Hindu that they seem to have gone beyond their brief to heap insults on the Shankaracharya by arresting him on the eve of Diwali and leaking “clinching evidence” against the Swami, whereas they have yet to get hold of the killers. It is ridiculous to say the “law will take its own course” while the statements made in the court by two of the accused show how the law is being abused to malign Hindu leaders. The Tamil media, particularly the channels owned by the two major Tamil parties, is playing the dirty game to the hilt to serve its narrow partisan ends. Nakeeran Gopal, who was close to Veerappan, is in the forefront of this vicious campaign. Does one need a better proof of the involvement of criminal and anti-Hindu forces in the conspiracy to malign the Hindu icon?

Hindu nationalism is a concept and belief that commands total commitment to Hindu ethos, national unity, territorial integrity and the glory of Bharat-mata. It transcends narrow religious, caste, linguistic and territorial loyalties as was proved beyond a shadow of doubt during the Ayodhya movement. The temple at Ayodhya is one of its symbols. The concept is too wide to be identified with only one or two symbols. It encompasses countless icons and issues that fortify Hindu unity, identity and causes. It is for the Hindu nationalists to work in unison to frustrate the onslaught from ‘secularists’ and communists, Jehadis and separatists.

Media fail to reflect Hindu hurt

Publication: Organiser

The arrest and subsequent incarceration of the Kanchi Shankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswati has understandably evoked editorial attention in the English media but througout all the hundreds of words written on the subject runs the refrain that the law must take its course. An event such as the arrest of a Shankaracharya interestingly enough, is the first in the annals of the rule of law. The Chennai-based The Hindu, most likely most concerned—since the event took place in Tamil Nadu—while giving the full background to the arrest and the reason for it in some detail, nevertheless pointed out that “no public presumption of guilt should be made at this stage”. The paper sharply pointed out that another ex-acolyte of the Kanchi mutt had in the past also been subjected to a murderous knife attack though, in that case the police seemed to run into a political wall after gaining initial clues. Said the editorial (13 November): “Devotees of the Kanchi mutt are understandably upset.

The Bangalore-based Deccan Herald (November 16) said that while the dismay and disbelief of the supporters and admirers of the pontiff are easy to understand, “it must also be realised that the issue involved is not one of faith but of the due process of law”. It is very unfortunate, said the paper, that a highly respected religious institution with centuries of spiritual tradition has been involved in such a sordid controversy, but, it added, “it is necessary to look beyond the immediate shock and dismay to place the matter in perspective”. Like almost every other paper, Deccan Herald said that the investigation should be allowed a free run and the law should be allowed to take its natural course. Maintaining that it will be unwise to politicise the issue, the paper said that “the best service that can be done is to let the investigation and the judicial process to move forward to their logical conclusion”.

The Kolkata-based The Telegraph (November 15) noted that the turn of events is “quite startling” and suggested that the manner in which the arrest was made, etc. points to the possibility that the electoral drubbing that Smt. Jayalalithaa received after her tie-up with the BJP “may have forced her to look for ways to re-build an anti-Brahmin image”. The paper said that the arrest could have been made after Diwali and added: “Indians love to assault the dignity of the powerful once they are down and police procedures aid the that tendency. The public presumption of guilt precedes the court case. It is not only unjust, it is also distracting and damaging to the neutral ambience of judgement”. The Mumbai-based The Free Press Journal (November 16) said that the arrest and jailing of the Shankaracharya “is proof of the fact that the rule of law prevails in the country and no one, however exalted he may be in the community, is above law”.

The Times of India (November 17) had some strange ideas. It referred to the Vatican as having both temporal as well as spiritual powers and went on to suggest that the four pithas set up by Adi Shankaracharya—at Badrinath, Puri, Sringeri and Dwarka—should also become independent states, as should also Bodh Gaya and the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar. Said the paper: “By creating Vaticans of many religions, we will merely acknowledge what is true, that small is beautiful and elective identities—and faiths—often matter more than political constructs.” But only the paper knows what they have got to do with the charges against the pontiff.

The Sunday Statesman (November 14) wrote about the dozen conspiracy theories and said that considering that Tamil politics is more bitter and vicious than the average Indian variety, it would be foolish to dismiss these hypothesis. However, it said: “But no amount of cynicism affects the fact that on the surface, the Shankaracharya case looks like one of those rare occasions of the establishment allowing the law to run its course.”

The paper made the point that governments find it difficult or sometimes impossible to intervene even when prima facie evidence of impropriety emerges.

That, said the paper is as true of India as in the West. Islamic countries, it added, “do not even admit the theoretical possibility of correcting the behaviour of the men of God”. It adds: “But a secular, mature country must have the institutional strength, when it is necessary, to call those who speak in the name of God to account.”

And for good measure it further said: “But it could be asked, could the law go as far with religious leaders of the minority community—that, too, is a test of secularism.”

Incidentally The Statesman also carried a front-page story a day earlier that pointed out that Tamil Nadu “has more than its share of god-men, some of whom have provided fodder to the media with their sordid tales of rape and murder and spicy scandals”. What is truly remarkable is that not a single paper has suggested that the pontiff must be let off merely because he happens to be the pontiff. The prevaling sentiment is that the law must take its course and justice must prevail.

And considering that practically every one of the leading English language media editors is a Hindu, it speaks highly of their sense of rectitude. There has been not a single instance of any English daily insisting that the pontiff must be let off or that he has been framed. The Statesman did mention the existence of several theories but that, surely, is only for the record. Incidentally The Statesman was about the only paper which took a dim view of the manner in which Chandraswami was let off in the St. Kitts forgery case. “The CBI,” said the paper (October 29), “has this fantastic inability to nail anyone prominent in public life” and pointed out how the Hawala case accused were all acquitted as were those chargesheeted in the JMM bribery scandal. It seems unlikely, however, that in the case of the Kanchi pontiff there will be any move to let him off.

Whatever her motive, nobody can now charge her of being merely anti-minorities—and perhaps that is precisely the message she wants to send to the country at large.

Nationwide protests on Shankaracharya’s arrest

Publication: Organiser

The Political vendetta is now clear as daylight. The tide seemed to turn slightly, with the Kanchipuram magistrate refusing to grant the prosecution request to extend the police custody for Kanchi Sankaracharya Shri. Jayendra Saraswati on November 22. But on November 26, he sent the Acharya for another 15 days judicial custody. Though his remand period ended on November 26, a fresh warrant of arrest was handed on November 25, to the Seer in prison in an “attempt to murder case”. That is in connection with the assault in Chennai two years back on one Radhakrishnan by hired goons. Meanwhile, the old Sankararaman case against the Seer promises to crash under falsehood.

The words, “I said so” were on the lips of almost everyone in the Kanchipuram Magistrate court when two key accused in the Sankararaman murder case on Wednesday, November 24, alleged before the court that they were tortured by the police during their custody. The Kanchi Seer himself had said soon after he was arrested on November 11 that “the case was a foisted one” and “the police had conspired” to sully his name.

Kathiravan, one of the accused, during his submission said that the police compelled him to endorse whatever they said in the case. Another accused Rajini alias Chinna also intervened to say that he was also tortured by the police. But quoting insiders, eminent analyst Shri. S.Gurumurthy wrote in ‘The New Indian Express’ on November 23 that “the police seem to have got not the Rajni alias Chinna, but some other Rajni and got him to confess to the crime. The real Rajni alias Chinna is still untraced”. That in fact confounds the matter further. Was this the “solid evidence” with the police that Chief Minister Jayalalithaa talked of in her prepared statement—justifying the arrest of the Seer—in the Tamil Nadu State Legislative Assembly on November 17, many wonder. Both the accused were further remanded till December 8. Notorious don Appu, the kingpin in the crime is still at large.

The prosecution had been fumbling badly from the very start. It had tried to justify the hasty arrest of the Seer on Deepavali by alleging that the Seer was planning to flee to Nepal via Pune in a helicopter. In this context the Tamil Nadu police should have sought information from the Pune police. But obviously they never did that. “The statement made by the Pune Commissioner Shri. D.N. Jadhav that the Pune Police had no idea whatsoever about any probable plan of the Swamiji about the escape to Nepal and that no police quarter from Tamil Nadu ever visited Pune in this regard would show that the prosecution was only trying to prejudice the mind of the public and the Court to scuttle the moves of Swamiji from getting bail.” (as reported in ‘The Hitavada’ on November 18).

Both Shri M. Karunanidhi and J.Jayalalithaa cut a sorry figure now. Karunanidhi of the DMK made a neat U turn by saying that Jayalalithaa had “personal and political motive” in arresting the Seer, whereas he had patted the police for the same earlier. This was not without reason. There are reports about reopening a two year old murder case probe in which Karunanidhi’s son M.K.Stalin was sought to be linked. Jayalalithaa’s lengthy denial (occupying half a page in daily newspapers) juxtaposed with the bunglings of the prosecution, only make one to suspect whether the case is bona fide.

The week-long nationwide protest demonstrations—peaceful but forceful—by Hindus were unprecedented. The VHP led the Hindu organisations in the dharnas, human chains and bandhs all over the country. The spontaneous rallying of venerated Sants and Mahants in Haridwar, Delhi, Guwahati, Bangalore and other places ably delivered the message to the powers that be. The Bangalore saints meet on November 24, was remarkable. Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Sri Sri Ravi-shankar and Swami Vishwesateertha of Pejawar Peetham, among others, expressed their resentment over the way Kanchi Sankaracharya was treated.

BJP also gave the campaign a national dimension. On November 22, former Prime Minister Shri. Atal Behari Vajpayee sat on day-long fast in Delhi protesting the arrest of the Kanchi Seer. Former President of India, Shri. R.Venkataraman and former Prime Minister Shri. Chandra-shekar joined him.

In Chennai, Shri L.K. Advani, former Deputy Prime Minister and national president of BJP spoke at a massive public meeting to codemn the Seer’s arrest. He said the incidents that unfolded after the arrest of Sri Jayendra Saraswathi on Deepavali day reminded him of the declaration of Emergency by the Congress Government in 1975. With censorship of news, there were not many visible protests but the voters expressed their anger against the Government during the 1977 elections. There might be a similar silence among people now but a large cross-section was deeply anguished at the manner in which the Shankaracharya was arrested and treated.

Pooja and other religious activities of the Sankara Mutt at Kanchipuram go on as before. After an initial shock, the devotees throng the Mutt to seek the blessings from the junior Sankaracharya Shri Vijayendra Saraswati. Like many, Vijayendra Swami is hurt by the behaviour of a section of the press sensationalising the development and on occasions twisting facts. Podhigai, Doordarshan’s Tamil channel, was as bad as DMK’s Sun TV and ruling AIADMK’s Jaya TV in covering the case.

Seer's followers ask media to be objective

'Police action terrorising Mutt devotees'

NT Bureau
Chennai, Dec 5:

The mental agony of the devotees of Kanchi Mutt and followers of Sri Jayendra Saraswathi was evident over the Seer's arrest at a public meeting organised by the Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Chennapuri Bhakthajana Samajam here yesterday. More evident was their ire against the media.

While the topic of the meeting was 'Media Rumours vs Truth', except a couple of speakers, all others used the occasion to vent their anger against the media instead of disproving the rumours.

L Ganesan, national secretary, BJP, said the developments after the arrest of the Seer and the police action were aimed at 'terrorising' followers of the Kanchi Mutt. The doubt ringing in the minds of the people now is: 'Whether the Seer was arrested for the murder of Sankararaman or Sankararaman was murdered to effect the arrest of the Seer.' Ganesan also condemned the arrest of Seer on Deepavali day and the manner in which he was being treated by the State government.

BJP's State unit president C P Radhakrishnan, said by arresting the Seer, it was established that 'all are equal before law'. As such, hereafter, the law should not be bent in the case of any individual, whatever may be their stature. He also made a fervent plea to the media to report the events in an objective manner.

VHP functionary RBVS Manian while lashing out at the media for 'irresponsible' reporting in connection with the developments after the Seer's arrest, went overboard by using distasteful words against mediapersons amidst protests from the journalists present to cover the meeting. In a way, the purpose of the meeting was thwarted by his speech.

Abdul Kareem Bhare, member of the All Indian Muslim Personal Law Board and a Padmabhushan awardee, who came from Nagpur, regretted the attitude of the media in pronouncing the 'verdict' against the Seer even before the court had begun the actual trial.

Gouhar Aziz, founder of Bharathiya Prani Mithra Sangh, recalled the service activities of the Seer and his compassion towards animals.

Referring to the allegation made by noted writer Anuradha Ramanan against the Seer, Aziz said she and her women associates have been visiting the mutt for a long time and the charge of the women writer had only shown that how immoral she could be.

Senior advocate R Gandhi said he had never came across a murder case in the 44 years of his career as no evidence has been produced against the Seer so far in the Sankararaman murder case. Going by what has happened till now, all charges were being foisted against the Seer with only one motto that he should not come out of prison, he said and expressed confidence that the Judiciary would render justice.

Kakkan Viswanathan, brother of former Minister Kakkan (in Kamaraj Ministry), said Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa who declared in the Assembly that there was strong evidence against the Seer in the case should produce it before the court. He also recalled services of Sri Jayendra Saraswathi to the Dalit community.

The Jayendra affair – lack of decorum of the media

By S. Gurumurthy (from Thuglak dated 29-12-2004)

“I was completely paralysed and bedridden. I could not walk. It is because of the grace & blessings of the Kanchi Mutt & the Kanchi Acharya that I was fully cured. I am here to tell you the whole thing….”

A lady was making an emotional speech on March 21, 2004. Just eight months ago. This was not a private conversation with a few people. She spoke this way in a public meeting at the Rathnagireeswarar temple in Adyar, organised jointly by the Sankara Medical Trust and Kanchi Sankara Foundation, in the presence of some 250 people, including several prominent citizens.

Moreover, this lady was the Chief Guest for the function. It was the 19th anniversary celebration function. It is the same lady who spoke thus – Anuradha Ramanan, who was already a well-known writer in Tamil Nadu, who became famous overnight throughout the country (perhaps internationally too). We all know the reason for her recent fame.

Since I cannot reproduce what she said in a dignified manner, I am not going to write about it in detail. However, she completely turned the story by appearing on TV channels & writing in publications that Sri Jayendrar subjected her to sexual harassment and she was paralysed because of him.

Further when she was hospitalised because of paralysis she ran away from the hospital fearing about a threat to her life from the Swamigal. When a woman accuses the Swamiji who is in jail, on a murder charge, a few yellow journals and other magazines vied with each other to publish the stories adding their own embellishments.

We all know that Sun TV & Jaya TV have been fighting like cats and dogs. The rivalry between Sun TV & Jaya TV is worse than the political differences and personal enmity between Karunanidhi & Jayalalithaa. However, both Sun TV & Jaya TV are on the same side on the Jayendrar case spreading canards about him. Normally whoever is interviewed on Sun TV will never be interviewed on Jaya TV. However, Anuradha Ramanan had an exclusive chance on both, to describe all her accusations about Jayendrar that she could never write about.

If only the TV Channels & the magazines had raised the question as to why Anuradha Ramanan is suddenly bringing up this issue, they would have come to know that she had praised the Kanchi Shankaracharya sky high and claimed that it is because of Sri Jayendrar’s compassion that she was cured of her disease.

What happens if they had asked the question and discovered the unbelievable nature of her story completely contradicting her accusations? How would they then reap a harvest by writing titillating stories? That is why the publications wrote her story by adding a lot more spice and titillating. The TV channels just picked that up.

Questions like ‘How is it that she is contradicting herself in just 9 months after praising him?’ are possible only if TV Channels & magazines are interested in the truth.

Just a few months ago, the police was rattled by the Jayalakshmi story. The police got out of that mess by the excitement of the Jayendrar story. Now there is no space in publications or time in TV for whatever is the findings of CBI. The magazines, TV Channels, the prosecution and even the CM have declared Jayendrar guilty by using people like Anuradha Ramanan, Swarnamalya and Usha. The responsibility for this lies squarely with the irresponsible, scandalous attitude of the media. Knowing fully well that this how the media would behave, people make bold and scurrilous accusations against famous people.

Anuradha Ramanan accused Jayendrar. Police indirectly accused Swarnamalya. They called her in the presence several reporters and TV cameras, asked her questions degrading the Mutt, & Vijayendrar, and created a sensation about a non-existent scandal.

Swarnamalya denied all charges. Nevertheless, magazines continued to publish various rumours about her. The police have proof the establish anything. That there is not a single honest straightforward publication to write about the injustice meted out to the Mutt, the Sankaracharya and a young girl Swarnamalya.

The case about Srirangam Usha is an even more condemnable accusation. What is surprising is that it is the government that made this accusation. When the second bail application came up for hearing before the high court, senior prosecution counsel KTS Thulsi, “There is a connection between this case and a girl called Usha. Jayendrar has spoken to her before and after the murder” thereby insinuating an illicit relationship and a murder conspiracy. He placed before the court a fantasy that “Usha is in hiding and we are looking for her”.

When such an argument is placed before the court, it will naturally hesitate to grant bail. The law does not look kindly upon bails being granted when people close to the accused are in hiding. This argument could have influenced the decision to reject the bail application. Media of course got a ‘good’ story. Thus, Thulsi killed two birds with one stone.

However, Usha appeared the next day before the police and said, “Where am I in hiding? I live with my brother in Chennai. I am a cancer patient under chemotherapy”. Thus, it became abundantly clear that prosecution’s argument in the high court was baseless. In spite of that, rumours about Usha kept appearing in the yellow press.

So what do we learn from all this? If a woman were to accuse any one – even if it were baseless – the world would believe it to be true. This is important for a woman’s self-defence. However when a woman makes such an accusation openly, it is wrong for the magazines to publish it as if it were true, without proper verification or enquiry. This is also against the code of conduct of the media.

At least now, would the TV Channels & the prospect introspect a bit what is right and not right? This is my question.

If they do not correct themselves, they themselves will be subject slander and insults.

One could ask as to why those affected do not file defamation cases. I will write next week about my experience in filing such a case. You will then know the amount of difficulties in filing a defamation case.

Making people lose faith in law

Author: JKB
Date: December 4, 2004

It is the 23rd day since the Deepawali eve of Kali Samvat 5105 and the incarceration of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peethadhipati Jagadguru Shankaracharya Sri Jayendra Saraswati Swamiji. The Acharya continues to be in jail pending the consideration of his second bail application in the High Court of Chennai. Hearing on the application began on Monday, November 29. It is not yet completed because one of the prosecution lawyers has claimed that he is not available till December 6. One of the highest Acharyas of India today is thus made to await in jail the convenience of a mere lawyer from Delhi.

During the last three weeks, the concept of equality before law has been repeatedly mentioned to justify the treatment being meted out to the Acharya. But in order to prove our commitment to this concept of equality, do we also have to make the Acharyas equally suffer the idiosyncrasies of law and the lawerly ways of delaying relief to victims of law for which the Indian legal system is notorious? It is iniquitous to make anyone suffer the kind of delays that are inbuilt in the way our legal community practices law. By making the Acharya suffer these inequities and delays we are not proving any great principle. We are not enhancing the majesty of law as the great and greatly busy prosecution lawyer from Delhi has claimed in an interview. We are only making the ordinary believing people of this country lose faith in the way the law is practiced in this land.

The principle of equality before law has been iniquitously applied in the case of Acharya in several other ways. For example, the principle of equality before law does not and has never implied that everyone must be treated as a convicted criminal in prison. The prison manuals of India in fact legally prescribe unequal and special treatment in prison for several categories of individuals including ordinary Europeans and mere graduates. Important public figures have always been provided special treatment in prison, even when they are involved in criminal cases. This used to be done during the colonial times, and it has been done in Independent India in almost every case involving an important public figure. This has never been held against law or against the principle of equality before law.

The only exception that one can remember is the case of the unfortunate Mr. Kalpnath Rai, who was atrociously treated in prison and died soon after his release. That is known to have been a case of grave miscarriage of justice. Perhaps similarly grave miscarriage of justice took place when a judge refused to provide any special consideration in prison for Mr. Rajan Pillai, a successful businessman who was accused of some business-related misdemeanour in Singapore. Mr. Rajan Pillai died in prison as a result of judicial insensitivity.

Providing reasonable facilities to the Acharya would thus have violated no great principle of law, and probably would have avoided the possibility of the State and the judiciary being parties to some potentially grave miscarriage of justice.

In any case, what are the special facilities that a Sannyasi of his standing needed? A clean and hygienic though small place to sit and sleep; hygienic and clean facilities for performing his morning ablutions; water from a flowing river or a clean well; very simple food cooked according to the regimen that 68 previous Sankaracharyas of his Peetham have followed for nearly 2500 years; some flowers and other pooja materials to let him perform the rituals that have been performed without let or hindrance in the millennia old Parampara of his Peetham. Providing these minimal facilities would have violated no great principle of law. It would have taken away nothing from the majesty of law, that we seem to be so keen to establish. And, it would have probably added to the legitimacy of the colonial State apparatus with which we continue to burden our people.

We have not treated the Acharya in a spirit of equality before law. We seem to have chosen to treat him iniquitously, to subject him to the worse inequities of law. We have handpicked an officer with a judicially established record of human rights violation to execute the arrest of the Acharya and to head the investigation team. We have chosen to set-up a huge investigating team that seems to be empowered to fish around for other cases that may be pinned upon the Acharya. We have repeatedly announced through the press that any allegation brought against the Acharya of misconduct in the near or far past shall be investigated; and has in fact initiated investigation into all past incidents that have taken place in the neighbourhood of Kanchipuram. We chose to keep the Acharya in an all-woman police station after his arrest and during the period of police custody. We video-graphed the process of subjecting the Acharya to coercive police techniques to make him break-down and leaked the tapes to a television channel. And, we chose a special prosecution lawyer who is so motivated by a godless ideology that in an interview to the press he declares that showing respect to an Acharya is a feudal legacy. Another of the prosecution lawyers has pronounced the Acharya to be "worse than a criminal" in open court even before any charges have been brought against the Acharya.

We did not have to do all this in order to show our commitment to the principle of equality before law. By treating the Acharya the way we have treated, we have neither enhanced the majesty of law, nor the legitimacy of the State. We have only once again made a public spectacle of the iniquitous ways in which the law is practiced in this land. By lowering the Acharya thus, we have lowered ourselves in the esteem of nations and before the bar of history.

Minority voices for seer

Chennai, Dec. 4: Devotees of the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt came out in large numbers this evening in a show of protest for the first time since Jayendra Saraswati’s arrest three weeks ago that was capped by words of comfort from a senior Muslim leader.

Padma Bhushan Abdul Kareem Parekh, a senior member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board in his 70s, came down from Nagpur despite being unwell to participate in the protest meeting organised in Chennai by the devotees.

Terming the developments sorrowful, Parekh, in a short address in chaste Hindi, said the seer was a highly respected religious leader.

“My personal opinion is that this matter (the case) should not be blown out of proportion and should not be sensationalised”, more so when the “matter is sub judice”, he said in a clear hint to the media for restraint.

As a personal law board member, Parekh had worked with the acharya during the latter’s efforts last year to peacefully resolve the Ayodhya issue.

The devotees, for the first time since the seer’s arrest in the Shankar Raman murder case on November 11, protested both the arrest and what they termed “media disinformation” and “trial by the press”.

The seer found more support from another member of the minority community, Gaur Aziz, a member of the National Commission on Cattle Protection.

She termed the “sexual allegations” levelled against the acharya by some persons, including noted Tamil writer Anuradha Ramanan, a “shameless slanderous campaign”.

Aziz had been interacting with the seer on issues related to animal protection, particularly prevention of cow slaughter.

One of the acharya’s seniormost woman devotees said the seer’s imprisonment will not “stain” him in any way because “great souls” go through such trials and tribulations as exemplified in Hindu mythology.

R.V.S. Manian, a senior functionary of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, was more strident in his protest. He attacked the “trial by the media” and demanded a separate law to govern “Hindu madathipathis (religious heads)”.

Manian bolstered his argument by citing a past instance in Madras High Court when a case filed by two local Christians against the Catholic Archbishop here could not be proceeded with as the latter was deemed a “citizen of the Vatican State” by virtue of his office.

By the same logic, Manian said, the existing courts “are unfit to try our madathipathis”.

A false case has been foisted on the seer, he added.

Will the Chief Minister have a look at what is happening?

Author: S Gurumurthy
Publication: The New Indian Express

Twenty four hours later it turns out that Usha is a cancer patient for 15 years and has undergone radiation therapy 130 times, yes 130 times! That Jayendra Saraswathi was giving financial help to her. Her name was mentioned by the police in the court as a possible accomplice of the Acharya! The police obviously knew that that the `woman' angle would also malign him.

This is headlined in newspapers whose readership is in millions. Damage done is irreversible which cannot be undone by the truth that came out a bit too late.

`The Acharya has confessed he is involved,' the police tell the court. They know that the confession claimed by the police, of course denied by the Acharya, is no evidence in law. Actually the police are bound in law not to disclose it. See now the reach of the law on confessions. A man kills someone and goes to the police and files an FIR against himself.

The Bombay High Court sets him free on bail, saying that that he has indicted himself is no ground to keep him in jail. This is also no ground to convict him. This is the law. See how the police get around the law against the disclosure here.

It first plants news in some yellow journals that the Acharya has confessed. Then that is picked up by a TV channel and telecast. By now millions and millions have read and seen the news, with disbelief. Then comes the prosecutor's statement in the court that the Acharya has confessed. Now the entire media carries the police statement as the final nail in the coffin!

As if all that remains is that the Acharya has to be just hanged. The police know that unless the Acharya makes it before the court, that confession is not valid in law. The ordinary people do not know law and so they do not know this too. They think that the so-called `confession' is the last word.

Have the police ever told the public that this is no `confession' in law? Has the media ever alerted the public that law will not look at this `confession'? For contrast look at how the very media handles those accused of terror, pontificating on human rights and what not.

The way the polity, media and the police is handling Jayendra Saraswathi and more than him the revered Kanchi Mutt is vicious. It is no more an investigation. It has turned into persecution.

The assassination complaint against him has descended into character assassination. As recently as a decade ago, one of the greatest saints of modern India, Chandrasekarendra Saraswati, also known as the `Mahaswami' or the `Paramacharya' was heading the Kanchi mutt which has a 2500-year history.

It is this institution which is being mauled today, virtually undefended. The attackers know that the Mutt, which lacks the skill and the infrastructure to take on the might of the attackers, cannot defend itself.

Hence more attack by the attackers is met with more silence by the Mutt. The triad of polity, media and the police have effectively convicted Jayendra Saraswathi for culpable homicide on no legal evidence -yes, no legal evidence - with the two accused persons having publicly disowned their confessions against the Acharya.

With their retraction, the prosecution is virtually dead, unless the police torture someone else to secure a confession against the Acharya. If there is a verdict on the evidence the police have the Acharya will be honourably acquitted. But how many know that fact?

Never in the history of India has an institution of high reverence been so recklessly and disrespectfully dealt with. Compare this with what happened when the Islamic institution of Deoband at Nadwa revered by millions of Muslims was raided, by the Central and state police, in the 1990s for harbouring ISI agents, an act endangering national security.

The raid was called off midway, yes midway, and Narasmha Rao, the then Prime Minister, had to send two of his senior ministers, one a Hindu and another a Muslim, to apologise to Ali Mian, the head of the Nadwa institution. So the law takes `its course' at Kanchi and `another course' at Nadwa.

With so much malice already in the public domain if tomorrow the judiciary sets Jayendra Saraswathi free for want of evidence valid in law then the very public, fed on media stories of his culpability, will think that the judiciary has set him free for reasons other than law.

That is how such vicious campaigns will hit even the judiciary. It does no good to any one, be it the government, media or the judiciary. Even if, at the end, I am entirely proved wrong, I cannot shirk my duty to alert the public and sensittise the authorities about the destruction of too many values involved in this investigation which is gradually turning into battle between the silent and silenced Kanchi Mutt on the one hand and the police and its associate, the media megaphones on the other.

It is no more an investigation into a crime. Having transcended to unreleated areas, it is now a larger design to defame and discredit the Mutt itself. Will the Chief Minister have a look at what is happening in the case and set it on course?

VHP says cop heading seer case is ‘tainted’

Author: UNI
Publication: The New Indian Express

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Thursday alleged that Superintendent of Police Premkumar, heading the special investigation team probing cases involving Kanchi acharya Jayendra Saraswati, was a ''tainted officer'' with a ''shady background.''

Talking to newspersons here, VHP international president Ashok Singhal alleged that Premkumar had been convicted twice and indicted by several High Court judges for his 'misconduct.'

''We don't expect the investigation being done by Premkumar to be fair. Having badly failed in the investigation, with several witnesses turning hostile, the police are now jumping over irrelevant issues to malign the fair name of the acharya and the mutt,'' he said.

However, Singhal did not demand the removal of the officer as he held the view that the whole case was foisted on the seer. ''Why should I demand the removal of the officer or the transfer of the case to some other state when the charges are false and the seer was falsely implicated in the case,'' he shot back, answering a question.

He alleged that a fast track court in Madurai had convicted Premkumar in two cases, but he was let off under the probation of offender act, considering his position. While being the DSP of Nagercoil, he was convicted under Sections 355 (outraging the modesty of women) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of Indian Penal Code (IPC), though he faced case under Section 307 (attempt to murder), Singhal said.

Besides, there were seven complaints against him and a Sessions Judge who was asked to inquire into the complaints, held that there was prima facie to proceed against him, he said.

Assisted by an advocate, Singhal claimed that when a writ petition was filed in Madras High Court, challenging the appointment of Premkumar as DSP, Justice N Srinivasan had said that his appointment was only temporary in nature and would become permanent based on the outcome of the cases.

Similarly, Justice Karpaga Vinayagam, while passing orders pertaining to another case, had observed that ''it was shameful to find a person like the petitioner (Premkumar) is allowed to work in police.''
The Judge later slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 on the officer and was asked to pay the amount to the Gandhi Mission in Madurai.

In respect of a complaint that Premkumar had disrobed a woman and attempted to remove her ''mangalsutra,'' the Sessions Judge in Tirunelveli, who inquired into the complaint, found prima facie, he claimed.

Two years ago, Justice Karpaga Vinayagam directed the state crime branch CID police to register a case against Premkumar, but no action seemed to have been taken. When the aggrieved person petitioned, the Director General of Police I K Govind had said that action had already been taken against him, Singhal alleged.

''A person with this kind of background and track record is heading the investigation team,'' Singhal lamented.

Dismissing as 'false' and 'baseless,' reports that the seer had admitted to his guilt during custodial interrogation, Singhal said ''it is a Himalayan untruth…The seer is innocent and it is nonsense to say that he admitted to his guilt.''

Protests in NY against Kanchi seer’s arrest

Author: Press Trust of India
Publication: www.expressindia.com

Expressing "outrage" over the arrest of Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Sarswathi, several Hindu religious and political organisations and the Sikh Sangat of America held a demonstration near the Indian consulate in New York demanding the seer's release.

"Hindus believe that the arrest of the Sankaracharya is motivated by a sinister design to demoralise them in general and to frighten and terrorise seers into submission," the demonstrators told reporters on Tuesday during the two-hour protest.

The demonstration was led by Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America and 'friends of BJP'. In a memorandum addressed to consul general Pramathesh Rath, the demonstrators said Hindus in America are "deeply disturbed and shocked" at the "disrespectful and legally suspect" manner in which Jayendra Saraswathi was summarily arrested and remanded to prison.

Swamiji's arrest, it said, is symptomatic of a "multi-pronged attack" soon to spread against potentially all Hindu leaders espousing the cause of Hindutva.

"This is a sinister attempt to frighten and terrorise other Hindu pontiffs into submission," it added.

The manner in which the Tamil Nadu police and the public prosecutor have tried to portray the Sankaracharya as a "professional killer" smacks of political partisanship. It said.

Acharya's arrest anti-Hindu: BJP

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, NOV.21. The Bharatiya Janata Party today continued its `dharna' to protest against the arrest of the Kanchi Sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, even as the Communist Party of India (Marxist) charged that the BJP leadership had once again shown its "true colours.''

Even as BJP's senior leader, Murli Manohar Joshi, sat in `dharna' at Patel Chowk here, he was joined by the party's deputy leader in the Rajya Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, and general secretary, Arun Jaitley.

The BJP blamed the Centre as well as the All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Government in Tamil Nadu for the treatment meted out to the Acharya. The party described the action as anti-Hindu and said that it had hurt the sentiments of the majority community.

Tomorrow, the leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Jaswant Singh, will lead the `dharna.' The three-day relay `dharna' is part of the BJP's nationwide protest.

Dr. Joshi said the Centre could not absolve itself of responsibility in the arrest, a point emphasised also by the former deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, Najma Heptullah, who came to the venue of the `dharna.' While Dr. Joshi said traditional values were being destroyed in the name of secularism, Ms. Heptullah said the arrest had hurt the dignity and self-respect of all and it was not a matter that concerned Hindus alone. The Central and State Governments could not be absolved of responsibility for the arrest on the plea that he was sent into judicial and then police custody by the court. Dr. Joshi insisted that since the Sankaracharya was arrested at Mahbubnagar in Andhra Pradesh, the Tamil Nadu police would have got permission from the Andhra police and the Government to arrest him.