Chennai, November 18
The crowded courtroom of Mr Justice R. Balasubramaniam in the Madras High Court today witnessed the battle of words between defence counsel Mr Ram Jethmalani, who has been arguing the seer’s bail plea since Saturday and the public prosecutor while the Judge reserved his order without specifying any date.
Mr Jethmalani even described Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s statement on the floor of the Assembly yesterday as a breach of legislative privilege and the affidavits filed by the prosecution as being “reckless and irresponsible”.
The Shankaracharya who was arrested on November 11 on a murder charge has been remanded in judicial custody till November 26.
The prosecution produced some dramatic video footage taken at the time of the Shankaracharya’s arrest at Mahboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh on the November 11 night.
While presenting the footage the prosecution said it would nail the “tissue of lies” in the seer’s bail petition about his not being informed of the arrest or the grounds for arrest.
The video footage played before the Judge clearly showed two investigating officers informing the Shankaracharya that he was being arrested in the Sankararaman murder case on the basis of evidence given by others already under arrest.
The recording also showed the Shankaracharya possessing a mobile telephone, which refuted the defence claim that the Hindu pontiff did not use any cellphones.
The senior counsel for the prosecution, Mr K.T.S. Tulsi, said that premature disclosure of names of witnesses and other details of the investigation would not only scuttle it, but also endanger the lives of witnesses and refused to identify mobile phone numbers and names of those involved in the case.
