M A I N   N E W S

Seer booked in 2 more cases of attempt to murder

Chennai, November 23
The Kanchi Shankaracharya was booked today evening in two more cases of attempt to murder while he was already in judicial custody on a murder charge.

Police sources said that another warrant was being prepared in another attempt to murder case involving a temple priest from south Tamil Nadu, Mr Thirukoshtiyoor Madhavan in August 2003.

Police sources added that a temple priest Mr Madhavan was beaten up in the south Tamil Nadu district of Tirunelveli for leading a demonstration against the Mutt sponsored attempt to remove a Shiva idol from a temple.

This has come as a big blow to the seer who has now been charged with attempt to murder of a former Kanchi Mutt official, Mr Radhakrishnan, his wife, Mrs Jayashree, and their maid at their Norton Street residence in Chennai in September 2002.

According to police sources Mr Radhakrishnan was allegedly “blackmailing” the Shankaracharya to expose him about financial misdeeds and one evening in September, 2002, two men armed with knives had attacked them.

Police sources said Mr Radhakrishnan was the intended victim because he campaigned against the Mutt under the pseudonym Somashekara Ghanapadigal.

They were severely injured but could escape death as they raised alarm and people came to their rescue.

The additional superintendent of police of Kancheepuram, Mr Sakthivel, today visited the seer at the Vellore Central Prison to serve a warrant on Sri Jayendra Saraswati and informed him that he was being arrested for allegedly conspiring to attack Mr Radhakrishnan, his wife and an employee.

The Tamil Nadu Police said the seer was being charged with conspiracy and attempt to murder.

Police sources said the investigation into the murder of Mr Sankararaman, a temple official at Kancheepuram, in connection with which the seer had been arrested, had revealed that some hirelings, armed with knives, had been used to attack Mr Radhakrishnan two years ago.

The police, in an affidavit opposing bail for the seer in the High Court last week, had alleged that both Mr Radhakrishnan and Sankararaman were “ardent followers” of the late senior pontiff, Paramacharya Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati, and were “disliked” by Sri Jayendra Saraswati.

Meanwhile, the Madras High Court today stayed a single Judge’s order permitting Kamsani Gopal Krishnaswamy, alias Appu, who is wanted in the A. Sankararaman murder case in which Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswati is an accused, to go abroad.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear on Thursday a PIL filed by former BJP Rajya Sabha member B.P. Singhal seeking a CBI probe into the arrest of Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati by the Tamil Nadu Police on the eve of Divali.

VELLORE: Kanchi Acharya Jayendra Saraswati, incarcerated in the Vellore Central Prison after he was arrested in connection with a murder case, today refused to meet visitors, including some lawyers, who desired to call on him. — TNS, UNI