Chennai, November 20
The Kanchi Shankaracharya and his devotees received yet another setback today as the Madras High Court rejected the seer’s bail plea in connection with his arrest regarding the Sankararaman murder case.

The order on the petition about the pontiff’s police custody was reserved and would be passed on Monday. The Shankaracharya, who was remanded to police custody yesterday for three days, would now have to spend the weekend in police custody.

Mr Justice R. Balasubramanium dismissed the bail petition after going through the case diaries submitted by the Tamil Nadu Police and hearing the prosecution and the defence counsels’ arguments, which concluded on Thursday.

He said, “At this stage of the investigation bail cannot be granted. I am dismissing the petition.”

Meanwhile, the Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati was likely to move the Supreme Court tomorrow challenging the Madras High Court’s rejection of his bail plea in the murder case in which he was the prime suspect.

Sources in New Delhi said the seer’s counsel would file a special leave petition (SLP) tomorrow and make a ‘mention’ of it in the apex court on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Shankaracharya was questioned by senior Tamil Nadu Police officials at the all-women police station, where he had been lodged since yesterday noon, at Kancheepuram 70 km from here.

He was said to be in good health. According to the judicial magistrate’s order he was being examined by a government doctor. The seer’s counsel, Mr. V. Krishnaswamy, too met him in the evening.

The police claimed to have made a major breakthrough in the murder of Sankararaman, manager of Vardarajan Perumal temple at Kancheepuram, on September 3 as they took in Raghu, the brother of junior Shankaracharya Vijayendra Saraswati, “for questioning”.

Police sources said Raghu was likely to become an approver in the case and his statement would be vital in solving the murder case.

If Raghu was arrested then the total number of persons held in connection with the case would be 19.

The Shankaracharya was arrested on the night of November 11 at Mehboobnagar in Andhra Pradesh on charges of getting Sankararaman murdered. He was first remanded in 15 days’ judicial custody but yesterday the magistrate remanded him in three days’ police custody.

At the High Court Mr Justice A.K. Rajan heard arguments on the petition challenging the seer’s police custody but reserved his orders and said it would be passed on Monday.