Chennai, November 17
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms J. Jayalalithaa, today broke her silence over the arrest of the Kanchi Shankaracharya by telling the State Assembly that the police had shocking but vital information on the links of the seer with the murderers of Sankararaman.
Making a suo motu statement in the House Ms Jayalalithaa said her government had proved by the arrest that everybody was equal before law.
This was probably for the first time the Chief Minister made a statement without any interruption by opposition DMK members, except the two BJP legislators who walked out of the House. There was total silence in the State Assembly as Ms Jayalalithaa read out her statement.
The DMK members looked happy as the party president, Mr M. Karunanidhi, had been demanding the arrest of the “real culprits” behind the murder of Sankararaman and had announced an agitation at Kancheepuram since the “culprits were enjoying political patronage”. However, after the Shankaracharya was arrested the agitation was called off and Mr Karunanidhi congratulated the Tamil Nadu police for “acting honestly”.
Ms Jayalalithaa said that based on the interrogation of two men arrested at Chennai on November 9, the police got vital information about the links of the seer with those hired to murder the temple official. There was “strong evidence” against the seer.
He was also involved in withdrawing huge funds from the Kanchi Mutt’s bank account and handing it over to the hirelings, she said.
She alleged that Jayendra Saraswathi also engineered the surrender of five men at a court in Chennai in October to mislead the investigation. After committing the murder the assailants also spoke to the Shankaracharya over the mobile telephone, she said.
The Chief Minister denied the charge of BJP leader Murali Manohar Joshi and NDA convener George Fernandes of violation of law while arresting the Hindu pontiff. She said all legal formalities were complied with right from his arrest till he was lodged at the Vellore Central Prison.
Ms Jayalalithaa said the seer was arrested at Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh around 10 pm on November 11, only to avoid any law and order problem and the Andhra Pradesh police assisted its Tamil Nadu counterparts.
Providing details of the case she
said an FIR was filed on the basis of a complaint filed by Ganesh, a witness to the murder of Sankararaman, inside the Varadarajaswami temple on September 3.
A special police team, under the direct supervision of the SPs of Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Cuddalore districts, was investigating the case.
Ms Jayalalithaa stated that several documents indicating the involvement of Jayendra Saraswathi had been seized from the house of the victim. She said: “On October 27, five persons surrendered before a Magistrate here and on interrogation, it was found that they had no role in the murder. A ‘bogus surrender drama’ was enacted as those surrendered had done so only for money.”
She said on the interrogation of those surrendered, five persons who “organised the surrender” were arrested on November 6 and subsequently two men, who had direct involvement in the Sankararaman murder, were taken into custody on November 7. Two more men were arrested the next day for “organising” the surrender with a view to sidetracking the investigation.
The Chief Minister stated: “On November 9, Kathiravan and Rajni, two of the main accused in the case, were arrested and on the basis of the information provided by them and from the articles seized from their custody, the police got “shocking and solid” information about the links of the seer with the Sankararaman murder.”
She said a special police team had been formed to arrest Ravi Subramaniam and Appu, alias Krishnaswamy, with whose help Jayendra Saraswathi had “conspired” to kill Sankararaman.
She denied the Opposition charge that Kancheepuram Superintendent of Police, Mr K. Premkumar, was shifted to Cuddalore only to save the “real culprits”, informing the House that he was transferred on September 2 itself, a day before the murder. The investigation team was even now headed by Mr Premkumar, she claimed.
