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Court remands Kanchi seer to
three days' police custody 

What is India News Service, Friday, 19 November 2004, 2000 hrs IST

A Kancheepuram court today remanded Kanchi Sankaracharya Sri Jayendra Saraswati to three days police custody for interrogation in a murder case. 

Passing orders on a police petition, First Class Judicial Magistrate, G Uttamaraja, said the police custody would be from 12:05 p.m. today to 10:30 a.m. on November 22. 

Special:
 What does it mean to be a Hindu in India?
Unease grows in the hearts of common Indians as they watch
a revered saint being arrested and humiliated, writes Soumya Sitaraman
What is India Editorial

Sri Jayendra Saraswati was arrested on November 11 at Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh in connection with the September 3 murder of local temple official Sankaramaran. A total of 18 persons, including the seer, have been arrested in the case so far. 

Last evening, after hearing the prosecution and defence arguments, the magistrate had reserved his orders for today. The Shankaracharya was later taken away from the court to an 'undisclosed destination' in a police van, amidst tight security, court sources said. They said that the area where the Shankaracharya would be kept would be disclosed only to the defence lawyer. He also directed that a government doctor check the seer's health every day. 

Later, one of the Shankaracharya's lawyers, Y T Thyagarajan, said that advocate V Krishnaswamy, a member of the Thanjavur Bar Association, has been nominated by the defence to meet the seer during his police custody period.

Politically motivated, says Ravishankar: Founder of the Art of Living philosophy Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said on Wednesday that the arrest of seer Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi was politically motivated.   

Seer sheds signature misgivings:: Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswati Thursday pleaded innocence and requested the judge to set him \93free\94, but hesitated in putting his name to a record of his statements. 

The Kanchi seer cited \93mutt tradition\94 while refusing to sign a copy of his replies typed out by the court staff. When the prosecution objected, the magistrate told the seer he could \93go through what has been recorded\94. At the prodding, he affixed his thumb impression. 

Police and defence affidavits.
Full text in PDF format

More stories on earlier editions of What is India:
17 November 2004
18 November 2004

A What is India Opinion Compilation The Kanchi Acharya case This priestly turbulence  It would appear the Shankaracharya has been convicted, not accused, writes ASHOK MALIK in The Indian Express  Murder in the Cathedral meets Template of Doom. As soon as Jayendra Saraswati, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi, was arrested for alleged involvement in the murder of a temple official, the great Indian punditocracy responded with its pet theories.  Rather than a focused inquiry, it quite suddenly became an all-purpose \91\91secularism-communalism\92\92 debate. Overinterpretation went into overdrive. Jayalalithaa had arrested the Shankaracharya because she wanted to distance herself from the BJP, one theory went. After all, Jayendra Saraswati was close to saffron politics. More than a pointless slanging match between competitive and equally spurious ideas of secularism, isn\92t this what India should be debating? In this country, so packed with mass-based religion and closely-held religious institutions, doesn\92t the believer-stakeholder have the proverbial \91\91right to know\92\92? Murder in the mutt Don\92t politicise the Shankaracharya\92s arrest, says The Tribune  People in general and the Hindus in particular are shocked over the arrest and incarceration of the Shankaracharya of Kanchi, Swami Jayendra Saraswati. He is accused of killing Shankararaman, a former employee of the Kanchi mutt, who crossed swords with him, with the help of contract killers. The police claim to have clinching evidence to prove his guilt. The Madras High Court has turned down his plea for special arrangements for his stay outside the jail premises. The law is obviously taking its own course in this case. At present, it is wholly wrong to treat him as either guilty or innocent. The court will in due course decide his fate. It is in this context that the efforts of organisations like the VHP to portray the arrest as an attack on Hinduism should be condemned. It is an attempt to politicise the case. They overlook the fact that the Swami was arrested in the full knowledge of Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, who venerated him more than some of his own disciples. Also, the Shankaracharya has enough resources to hire the best legal talent to fight his case. If he is innocent, it would not be difficult for his lawyers to prove that the police charge is false. In any case, there is no need for either the DMK to gloat over the arrest or for the VHP to whip up communal passions over it. Hinduism can certainly do without the labours of such self-proclaimed defenders of the faith. How safe is the temple?  We are increasingly losing our sense of security, be it in a crowd, in privacy, in the law court, in the police station or even in places of worship, says Gyan Pathak The arrest of the sankaracharya of Kanchi only heightens that feeling. The Kanchi seer, Jayendra Saraswati, was one of the most respected saints in the country, and yet he now stands accused of murder. Whether the sankaracharya actually committed the crime is not the moot question. What is important is that fingers could be pointed at him. How safe is then a devotee in the precincts of the temple? Pontiff and the law There is a special onus on the authorities to be scrupulous and sensitive in this case, says an edit in The Indian Express  In the days to come, public discussion must remain alert to an urgent imperative: to separate the emotion and drama that swirls around the arrest of the Kanchi Shankaracharya, Jayendra Saraswati, from the grave charges that have been framed against him. There may be questions about the manner in which it all happened on Thursday night. Was there really no alternative to the late night capture of the seer in Andhra Pradesh by a plane-load of armed commandos despatched from Tamil Nadu, for instance? Or, was it really necessary to carry out the dramatic operation during the Diwali period? Questions can be asked about the effort by the authorities in Tamil Nadu to employ restraint and to avoid trampling on sensitivities unduly. Travails of a pioneer Even as crime reporters and unnamed police sources have had a field day presenting some extremely fanciful theories to a hungry media, the case has become inevitably politicized, writes Swapan Dasgupta Over the past week, there has been considerable popular interest in the dramatic arrest of the Sankaracharya of Kanchi on a charge of murder. Even as crime reporters and unnamed police sources have had a field day presenting some extremely fanciful theories to a hungry media, the case has become inevitably politicized. Passions have been further aroused by the public prosecutor\92s description of Sri Jayendra Saraswati as a \93criminal\94 who deserved no exceptional treatment. It has been suggested that the Sankaracharya\92s arrest is a calculated assault on Hindu institutions and the Hindu religion. Conversely, in atheistic circles linked to the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu, there have been celebrations over the humiliation of a Brahminical bastion. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam chief, M. Karunanidhi, has even gone to the extent of demanding a government takeover of the Kanchi math. Wanted: Cool heads  Those who are trying to blow up the arrest of the head of the Kanchi Sankara Mutt by the Tamil Nadu Police on a murder charge as an attack on Hinduism are doing a great disservice to the religion.  It is in situations like these that true votaries of the religion are expected to keep their sense of proportion and set an example in adhering to the lofty ideals of patience, understanding and balance that have been handed down by sages and seers of the past.  Let us analyse the happenings with cool heads: The arrest could not have been made without the specific authorisation of the Chief Minister of the State, in view of the standing of the Mutt worldwide, the high profile enjoyed by Sri Jayendra Saraswati and the ramifications of such a course of action. Real respect to rule of law is incompatible with the demand for special and indulgent treatment of one who is charged with gruesome murder based on prima facie material to substantiate it. Holy smoke  J Jayalalithaa has never really left the world of the silver screen, metaphysically speaking, says The Telegraph Each of her actions is dramatic \97 and invariably distracting. The late-night arrest of the Kanchi sankaracharya, Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, reverberates with memories of a similar arrest-drama carried out in fell darkness on Mr M. Karunanidhi a few years ago. That turned out to be successful theatre, but not good politics.  More stories on earlier editions of What is India: 17 November 2004 18 November 2004

 
Nation

PM drawing new roadmap for Kashmir

After two days of "listening'' and "learning'' in Srinagar and Jammu, the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh's thinking on Jammu and Kashmir appears to be acquiring a definite shape. He wound up his two-day visit to the state by extending an open invitation to all groups which can contribute to peace regardless of political affiliation. "I too was a refugee and can understand the pangs and sufferings of people uprooted from their soil,'' he said, visibly moved by the plight of Kashmiri Pandits.

Uma will say sorry but 'party must ponder': Shuttling between Kedarnath and Badrinath, Sadhvi Uma Sri Bharati is fast getting adept at writing letters to the BJP leadership and workers. She is turning more philosophical with each letter.


Special:
 What does it mean to be a Hindu in India?
Unease grows in the hearts of common Indians as they watch
a revered saint being arrested and humiliated, writes Soumya Sitaraman
What is India Editorial